A Maka for All Seasons
by The Inimitable DA
Summary: A series of Maka-centric stories. Black Star gets gum stuck in Maka's hair. Can she get it out before it's too late? What vengeance awaits Black Star?
1. Chapter 1

**A Maka for All Seasons**

**By DarkAngel**

_Disclaimer:_ Soul Eater belongs to Ohkubo Atsushi-sensei. I'm just borrowing his characters for a bit of fun. ;)

_Author's Notes:_ First time Soul Eater fic. :o Well, the first one I've published, anyway. I'm doing this fic as part of the LJ 42 Soul Eater Prompts community challenge. Please take some time from your busy schedules to let me know what you think, yes? :D

* * *

**[13., 14., & 03. Chocolate, Whipped Cream, Lick]**

Maka was in a good mood.

It was a Sunday, and she'd gotten all her homework finished. For once she and Soul didn't have an extracurricular assignment lined up. The sun was shining and for once no one was badgering her to go out and enjoy the sunshine – not Black Star with his basketball challenges; not Papa insisting that he and Maka spend some quality time together; not Soul, who usually insisted she'd sprout mushrooms straight out of her head if she didn't get some outdoors time. The aforementioned weapon was actually sprawled out on the living room couch reading (though it was only a music magazine) and he didn't look as though he'd be moving anytime soon.

Sometimes days like this just fall into your lap, and Maka wasn't so foolish that she'd let it go to waste.

She'd gotten the recipe from Tsubaki the other day. All the ingredients were sorted out; all that was left was to make it. Humming, she started mixing the first of the ingredients. Flour. Sugar. Cocoa. A pinch of baking powder. Maka tilted her head, brows furrowing as she looked over the recipe card. Was salt really necessary in a cake? She gave this another moment's consideration, then shrugged and added the small pinch as suggested. Tsubaki was a great cook: she wouldn't lead Maka wrong.

Next step came the non-dry ingredients. As she added and mixed various things in, she glanced at the clock on the kitchen wall. If all went well, she'd be done this sucker in about an hour and they could eat this for dessert. The thought made Maka happy.

_Let's see, there'll be a portion for Blair and Soul. If it turns out well enough, I want to share if with Tsubaki, which means I should pack in double portions for Black Star. Oh, I can't leave Kid and the others out either…_

She was so preoccupied with her work she didn't realize Soul had wandered his way into the kitchen until he was practically in her face. Startled, she nearly lost her grip on the cake pan.

"Gah, Soul! Don't just sneak up on me like that!" She took a moment to allow her racing heart to get under control. She gave him a curious look. "I thought you were reading."

Soul shrugged. "Got thirsty." He took a sweeping glance the bowls, bits of spilled flour, cartons of milk and eggs, and the can of whipped cream on the counter. "What are you making?"

"Chocolate pudding cake," Maka announced proudly. "If it turns out well, we can have it for dessert tonight!"

"Sweet." He gave her a glance. "It's your turn to cook tonight, isn't it?"

Maka made an affirmative noise, turning her attention back to her work. She picked up the bowl and started pouring the mixture into the baking pan. While she was doing that, she asked "Do you have any requests for dinner?"

There was a moment's silence as Soul gave this some thought. "I haven't had curry in a while."

"Curry and cake?" Maka wrinkled her nose, shooting her partner a glance.

"You're the one that asked," he replied grumpily, swiping the milk carton off of the counter. He opened it and brought it to his lips but stopped at Maka's look and with a sigh, found himself a glass. Maka reached for a spatula to get the last of the mix into the pan.

"True," she conceded. "As long as you don't mind the contrast, I guess." She tilted her head at Soul. "Can you open the oven door for me? My hands are full."

He did as she asked. Maka closed the door and wiped her hands on a towel. She put her hands on her hips, satisfied. "That's 45 minutes and we'll have pudding cake." Now, to see to dinner…

She tried to get to the refrigerator door but Soul wasn't budging. She gave him a quizzical look. "Was there something you needed Soul?"

"Mm?" He drained the last of his milk in one go, but made no move to put his glass in the sink.

"Only you're blocking the door and I'd like to make that curry." He moved aside, and she started selecting vegetables. Carrots, green peppers, some potatoes… her gaze narrowed on a small bunch of wilting parsley. Best to use that before it became completely useless. It would upset the balance of the flavour a little, but Soul seemed to like the stuff, so why not?

Satisfied with her selection, she stood up and turned toward the counter – only to see Soul standing directly in front of it, the can of whipped cream in his hand.

At this rate, she wasn't going to get much done. _He's like a rabbit sometimes_, Maka thought, half-exasperated. Snow white hair (fur). Red eyes. Got sulky when she didn't pay attention to him.

"If you're going to stand there you can help with the cooking," she announced, nodding at the veggies in her arms. Soul said nothing. Nor did he make a move, though his eyes did flicker from the produce in her arms to the can in his hand. And now Maka's internal radar was bleeping. No good ever came of things when he got that look in his eyes. Her own eyes narrowed. "What are you going to do?"

He laughed once, a single note confirming her worst suspicions. She brought the vegetables closer to her chest, as though they could protect her from whatever Soul had in mind.

Before she knew it, she was backed up against the fridge. She could see each and every one of Soul's very white and very sharp teeth. He held up the can.

"What are you _doing_?!" she practically screeched as she felt something cool on her cheek.

She froze when she felt something warm on that same cheek. Her eyes widened.

"Mm, delicious," he murmured. "Forget the cake, you taste much better." Maka flushed bright red. His voice dropped a decibel. "What's say we forget about dinner and –"

"MAKAAAAA CHOOOOPPP!!!!"

Soul went crashing down. He swore, clutching at his head. He looked up at Maka through watering eyes.

"Did you really have to hit me with a _potato_?!?!"


	2. Chapter 2

**A Maka for All Seasons**

**By DarkAngel**

_Disclaimer: _Soul Eater isn't mine. It's Ohkubo Atsushi-sensei's. Keep up the great work, sensei!

_Warning:_ There are spoilers for Episode 51. Don't read it if you haven't seen it and don't want to be spoiled.

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**[17. Blood]**

Ever since that incident with Asura, things have been increasingly difficult for Maka.

She had always been glad she was born as a Meister and not a Weapon. She'd thought this even as a young girl before she knew about where her Papa went on those nights, or why he appeared panicked and flushed sometimes when it was his turn to pick her up from school. Though she knew her father's blood lay sleeping in her veins, more than anything, she wanted to be just like her mother. That feeling had intensified into resolve once she'd been old enough to understand just what it was her Papa had done, and its result.

Her mother had told her that she had the soul of a Meister, and Shibusen's pre-entrance tests had confirmed what she'd said.

So why now?

Even now she can't remember it all that clearly. It probably would have gone undetected by everyone if her blood hadn't screamed out for her survival. And that unfortunate incident in front of the others yesterday. She wonders if this was how Soul felt when he first discovered he could transform.

Now she isn't sure how to proceed. Whatever had happened in that fight with Asura, it had awakened the weapon sleeping inside her. They had run tests. From what Stein could hypothesize, her transformations were unstable – he had likened it to the loosening of a pushpin from a corkboard: now she'd transformed, it was hard to say what would become of her. It was, Stein had said in the end, up to her.

All she knows now is that she's transformed twice, and only time will tell whether her father's blood will settle once more, or whether, like the pushpin, she'll be unable to settle into her old niche the way she used to. (She tries not to think about it. She's read about how young weapons transform against their will, especially if physical or mental strain gets the better of them.)

Now she sits at home, staring blankly at the TV. She isn't sure that there's anything good on; she doesn't care. She just wants the noise there.

Her Papa's initial shock had given way to excitement: fate had presented him with another chance to bond with his daughter. He could teach her about transformation, about how to defend herself as a weapon (as though she hadn't been defending herself for years. As though he thought her newfound abilities were permanent). She didn't have the heart to tell him that she didn't want any of it. More than anything, she wanted to go back to being Maka, just Maka.

And then there was her partner. He would never say or even suggest it, but over the years she's learned to read him as well as any of her books. She knows that her transformation upset him. Just as with that time he had witnessed the fight with Justin, she knows that he's feeling useless: she can transform now, so is there any need for him to be around? She wants to reassure him, but she can't. Not when she doesn't even know how to deal with this whole… _issue_ herself.

She clutches the afghan she's brought from her room tighter, fingers clenching into the thick fabric. Help. She needs help. She doesn't know how to deal with this.

Her eyes fall to the pen and notebook she's brought with her. She thought that writing poetry would help, but she isn't all that sure anymore. But there is someone she can still turn to.

Reaching out a hand, she uncaps the pen, burrowing deeper into her blanket cocoon as she looks at the lines of the blank page on her lap. And she begins to write.

_Dear Mama…_


	3. Chapter 3

**A Maka for All Seasons**

**By DarkAngel**

_Disclaimer: Atsushi _Ohkubo made Soul Eater. It's his to do with what he will. I'm just borrowing his characters for a bit of harmless fun. :)

_Author's Notes: _Actually, since I never did this before, I want to take the time to thank all the lovely people who commented and added this story to their favourites or their story alerts. You have no idea how surprised I was that this fic got as much attention as it did. I was expecting maybe one or two comments. Three if I was really lucky. You've all exceeded my expectations and made me wonderfully happy. So thank you. Thank you all.

I hope what I continue to do pleases you.

_Warning:_ Spoilers for Chapter 60 of the manga.

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**30. Hatred**

She had lied to her.

It hurt more than the physical injuries she'd gotten from the mission. More than anything, she'd wanted to believe what Medusa had said. _Parents will go to any length for the sake of their children_.

Her desire to believe had been so strong that she had cut through all reason and objection; followed Medusa into the darkest pits of hell. Her just reward had been a gash in her side that had required stitches and an overnight stay in the infirmary; a shattered pride and crushed hope; and perhaps the worst indictment – no Crona.

She'd resolved that she wouldn't cry about it any more. She'd spilled the last of her tears on the sleeve of Soul's jacket, the traces of her weakness seeping through fabric and into his skin. No, she would not cry.

Now all she wanted was vengeance. She wanted to see the smug look ripped clean from Medusa's serpentine visage; wanted the satisfaction of feeling flesh tear and seeing blood spill. Would it be black, like Crona's?

She would exact her vengeance, and take as her prize all the witch's despair, anger and cruelty, until there was nothing left in Maka's heart but clarity. Until the guilt in her heart and the despair built of fourteen years of betrayal eased. And in the meantime, she would sit and wait, here in front of the television. The physical wounds would be the first to heal.

She could start to heal all other wounds when her ultimate mission was complete.


	4. Chapter 4

**A Maka for All Seasons**

**By DarkAngel**

_Disclaimer:_ Soul Eater belongs to Atsushi Ohkubo. I'm just borrowing his creation for a bit of fun. :)

_Author's Notes:_ This was inspired by an article I read in one of the Soul Eater fanbooks. The producers were talking about Maka and her mother, and how Maka was too young at the time to understand the complete story behind her parents' divorce. She still equates divorce = Papa's fault. I wanted to explore that theme.

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**[26. Blame]**

When her mother tells her that she's leaving, Maka knows full whose fault this is.

As she watches her mother pack her bags, she bites down hard on the inside of her cheek to keep the tears back. She knows that crying won't make Mama stay; the only person that could possibly make her stay is that one that's driven her away; forced her into vagabondage. At least, this is the way the thirteen year old Maka Albarn sees things.

Mama is pragmatic as always. "I'll leave the spare keys with you so you can come home if you ever need to, though I imagine you'll be just fine." She stuffs a set of clothes into a duffel bag. She gives the albums on the bed some consideration before turning to her daughter. "Do you want to take the albums with you?"

Maka nods. It's all she can do. "When will you be back?" she asks.

"I really don't know the answer to that," her mother replies. And then she seems to realize something, because she stops her packing and sits down on the bed, patting the space beside her. Maka sits, her fists clenched between her knees. Mama puts an arm around her shoulder, her breath ruffling her hair and warming her ear.

"It's not your fault this is happening, Maka." She must feel Maka tensing because she adds, "It's not Papa's fault, either." She lifts her daughter's face so they're looking each other straight in the eye. "I'm going to be honest. This has little to do with him. This is something that I need to do."

Maka gulps past the lump that is suddenly threatening to cut off her air. "Do you mean a mission?" Shibusen sends a lot of its meisters on missions, even after they've finished with their weapon partners, after all.

"Not exactly." Her mother smiles, and despite herself, Maka smiles back. "But I will keep in contact with you. I'll send you postcards." She pats Maka's cheek. With a sigh, she stands back up and places her hands on her hips, giving the room a sweeping glance. There is something in her eyes as she does this, but Maka can't pinpoint what that might be. Regret? Resolve? Nostalgia? Maka takes a look around herself. The room has changed considerably; it had already been kind of strange once Papa had taken his stuff out. Now the room looked far too empty, devoid of life.

"Maka, I want you to do something for me."

"Hm?" Maka looks back at her mother, wondering what it is that Mama wants of her.

This time Maka can identify the look in Mama's eyes. It's love. The same expression she gets when she looks at Maka; the same expression she used to get when she smiled at Papa.

"Look after your father for me. I… won't be able to do that once I'm gone."

It's then that Maka realizes that her mother still loves her Papa, fool that he is. And Maka hates him all the more for it. How could he do this?

_Papa loves Maka and Mama the best. I mean it. I really mean it! _The words she's gotten so used to hearing that they've lost all meaning. Mama rarely says things like that, but to Maka, that seems more sincere than her father's frantic insistence. She shakes her head.

"I know you're angry," Mama says. "I won't tell you not to be. But Maka, you're our daughter – mine and his." Her smile now is warm; none of the sadness or anger she remembers from her is reflected in her face now. "Do you know why he works so hard at Shibusen?" Maka shakes her head. "He does it for you. I know I've been selfish, but I'm not going to deny him that."

Maka thinks about this. She doesn't understand. She does understand enough to know that Mama still loves Papa, and has a bigger heart than Maka herself does. Mama has moved past blame and into acceptance; it will be a long time (maybe never) before Maka herself can do that. But for her mother's sake, she nods and says, "Okay."

"Thank you, Maka."

As they leave the house together for the last time, Maka stops and looks back at the place she once called home. It won't ever be the same anymore. Up until now, she'd always considered this her home, and the apartment she shared with Soul, well, a secondary home. She'll have to give that up. Despite what Mama says, she knows that what she's lost is Papa's fault.

It will be a cold day in hell before she can forgive him.


	5. Chapter 5

**A Maka for All Seasons**

**By DarkAngel**

_Disclaimer:_ I don't own it. Atsushi Ohkubo does, though. I don't own the story about the rabbits, either. That's from _The Rabbits' Wedding_ by Garth Williams.

_Author's Notes:_ After three chapters of emotional trauma, I thought Maka deserved a break. xD So this is… well, not quite fluff, but a romantic change of pace? I suppose?

…ugh. I'll be honest here. I'm not feeling at all confident about this piece. Comments and criticism would be gratefully appreciated.

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**[10. Last & 09. First]**

Maka honestly didn't think the day would come when she would be in a situation like this. She's never attended a wedding before, much less been at the centre of one. And yet, here she is, on the big day, in a white dress (which thank Shinigami, isn't made of ten billion layers of lace and ruffles and beading; Maka once read somewhere that dresses were made so elaborately because the sheer weight of the material would keep the bride from running away should she have second thoughts – thankfully the only really elaborate part of her dress is the cape, which she isn't wearing right now anyway).

It's a good day for a wedding, Maka reflects as she looks out her bedroom window. It's practically a cliche, and would be a crime in Maka's books if she wasn't in the mood she was in. As it stands, the sun is going to reach its zenith in a couple of hours; there's not a cloud in the sky, and there's even a light dry breeze tickling her cheeks; she feels a slight tickle as strands of hair flutter against her neck.

Today is the last day she'll go by the name Maka Albarn.

She twists the ring on her left wedding finger, watching it catch the light. She smiles as she remembers the way Soul had given it to her, half grumpy and nervous. He had never looked so endearing as he had at that moment, all pretence of being cool long abandoned as he'd gotten awkwardly on one knee, half-scowling at her in his anxiousness.

There's a sound behind her, and Maka doesn't need to use Soul Perception to know who it is. The figure comes to a stop beside and just behind her, placing a hand around her waist.

Maka's never subscribed to the old belief that it's bad luck for the bride and groom to meet before the wedding. Soul himself has never been all that superstitious to begin with.

Out of the corner of her eye, she can see his hair, ruffled by the breeze. Of its own accord, her mouth twists up in a smile. "Hey Soul, did I ever tell you about my favourite story when I was a kid?"

He shakes his head, giving her a curious glance.

"It's about two rabbits who always used to play together. There was black rabbit and a white rabbit. They were best friends, you know." She twists a lock of her hair before letting her hand drop; Liz and the others spent a lot of time that morning setting it. "Anyway, the black rabbit would sometimes get this really sad look on his face. And when the white rabbit asked him about it, he would always tell her that he was just thinking.

"One day the white rabbit asked him what he always thought about, and why he always got a sad look on his face when he did. And he told her that he knew there was going to be a day when they grew up and they were going to have to part.

"Neither of them wanted that. So they got married. They lived happily ever after." She grins at him, and he grins back.

"There was a time when I lost faith in that story. Children's stories are just children's stories; that's what Mama said. And Papa ended up abandoning Mama. But…" She reaches out a hand for his. Their fingers link together. "I believe again." She doesn't have to tell him the reason. He knows just as well as she.

"Do you remember when I went to talk to your dad because I wanted to propose?" Soul looks up at the sky. "Well, you know your old man better than anyone else. He did the usual. Screamed. Cried. Threatened to kill me. Tried to say no." He laughs, a short sound. "But in the end he gave in. Do you know what he said to me then?"

Maka shakes her head, mystified. She's always wondered how Soul had won Papa over.

"He said that as long as I'm your first and last, he'd give us his blessing." Soul's gaze is intense, burning into her with his resolve. "That's a promise." He gives her one of his rare smiles, the ones without any trace of irony or sarcasm or bite. The ones he reserves just for her. "Sometimes, things work out just like the storybooks say they will."

It's a cheesy line, coming from him. He seems to realize that, because he looks away. Maka squeezes their still linked fingers and closes her eyes when she feels him squeezing back.

It's the last day she'll go by the name Maka Albarn.

It's the first day of the rest of her life as Maka Evans.

She can't ask for much better than that.


	6. Chapter 6

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A Maka for All Seasons

**By DarkAngel**

_Disclaimer: _I don't own it. The amazing Atsushi Ohkubo does. (Guess who's totally fanwapping over the lastest chapter?)

_Author's Notes:_ It's been a while since I've written anything. I need to get back into my groove. So, I do apologize in advance if this comes off as feeling a little awkward in places.

* * *

**[15. Once More]**

It went without saying that in the first few months at Shibusen, there were whole mountains worth of learning curves to overcome. Maka Albarn, with the super scythe meister mother and Death Scythe father, was no exception.

Shibusen's curriculum was considered advanced by any standard. This was because while it was a vocational school (and one run by Death himself, at that) it also had a duty to prepare its students for life in the real world outside of Shibusen. To that end, Maka and her fellow students took classes offered in standard schools nationwide: History, English, Math, Science, Languages, Physical Education.

And then there were classes that definitely weren't standard fare at other places. Soul Studies. Resonance: Theory & Application. Self-Defence and Combat. Maka for the most part didn't have trouble with many of her lessons. She had always been a bright student, and despite the intensity of pace at Shibusen, she was more than equal to keeping up.

Well, for the most part. As much as it frustrates her to admit this, she isn't really doing well in Self-Defence and Combat.

This is not due to any lack of skill on her part. She can defend _herself _just fine. But (and this is the really embarrassing part), she can't defend or attack with her weapon. Totally ironic, considering her Papa's a scythe.

She picks herself up off the floor for the umpteenth time that morning, biting back a groan as she feels a muscle in her back twinge.

"You're putting too much of your weight into your left foot when you move up to block," Soul observes as she rights herself and takes up her stance once more. "Concentrate on your body's overall balance."

Maka grits her teeth. Easy for him to say, observing from the sidelines. And she knows what she's supposed to do. It's just that her feet and the weight of the weapon in her hands keep getting in the way. She doesn't tell him this, opting to ignore him in favour of her sparring partner. "Again!"

The boy complies, twirling his spear with both hands before bringing it crashing down against Soul. Maka grunts as her legs work to keep her up against the strain. She can't give up. She won't give up. Not until she's taken one point in this session. The pressure becomes too much to bear, however, and Maka goes flying. This time she can't hold back the shriek as Soul is ripped from her hands. She lands none too gently with a hard thud, rolling across the floor and hitting the opposite wall.

"Maka!" Soul comes out of his transformation, rushing to her side. He comes to a kneel in front of her. "Idiot," he growls. "I keep telling you not to push yourself. Take a break, already."

"No." Maka shakes her head. He doesn't understand. It's easy enough for him to tell her take it easy, but she's got to do better than this. She's going to be the best scythe meister, and she's going to make her partner the best Death Scythe ever. She glares up at him. "I can still go." She tries to get back up, but Soul holds her down, his grip on her shoulder unyielding.

"You've been at this for over an hour now," he yells in her face. She winces as some spittle hits her cheek. "You aren't doing yourself any favours tiring yourself out like this! Take a break and try again later!"

Maka glares at him. "Just help me up," she says. Then, "That's an order, Soul."

Her partner blanches. She's never pulled rank on him like this. Although Shibusen treats every student equally for the most part, the fact of the matter is that in a weapon and meister partnership, the right of final decision rests with the meister. Soul knows this just as well as she does.

He doesn't care.

"Damn it, Maka, why are you doing this?" His voice has lowered but is no less angry, no less upset. Their partnership is in its first tentative weeks. Not once had he considered, when he agreed to be her partner, that she'd be so bullheaded and maddeningly stubborn. It just went to show that that line about first impressions being right was a bunch of claptrap. "What are you trying to prove?"

At his words, Maka's eyes narrow. Unfortunately for Soul, it's too early in their partnership for him to discern that this is a danger signal. "I'm not trying to prove anything."

"The hell you aren't." And suddenly he's letting her go, and Maka blinks a couple of times. With a sigh that's more like a violent expulsion of breath, he rubs at the back of his head. He's not looking at her. "Is this about your dad?"

For the second time in as many minutes, Maka's nerves are jarred. She opens her mouth to deny him, but stops just as the words are scrambling their way up her throat. Soul's looking at her now in a way that makes her very uncomfortable. It's as though he can see something that she herself isn't aware of. She bites back the urge to tell him to look somewhere else.

"Because you don't have to rush," Soul says, continuing on as though she wasn't just about to interrupt him. "I'll become a Death Scythe. And you'll be the cool Meister that gets me there." He grinned, a small but confident laugh full of teeth. "Am I right?"

She blinks. Weren't they just arguing a moment ago? Where's her anger? Her sense of righteousness? She has no idea. She only knows that it's not there anymore. And Soul is being _reasonable_. She looks at his grinning face. He sticks out a hand.

"Come on, Maka. Break time." There's a gleam in his eyes. "The next time, we'll beat that kid and his partner, hands down."

Maka grins and takes his hand. "That's a promise."

He tightens his grip on her fingers. "You know it."

They'll do it together. They'll overcome any curve balls Shibusen throws at them. They'll pass any test, beat any trial, and they'll learn to work together as a flawless team. And they'll succeed. Of this, Maka is absolutely certain.

Together, they can do anything.


	7. Chapter 7

**A Maka for All Seasons**

**By DarkAngel**

_Disclaimer:_Alas, none of it belongs to me. It all belongs to Atsushi Ohkubo, who by the way, totally reduced me to gibbering squeals with Chapter 63. Coherency? Whut?

_Author's Notes:_ I always thought the kanji in Maka's name were very fitting. It's _not_ by any standard a typical Japanese girl's name; it just makes her that much more kick-ass awesome, in my opinion.

* * *

**[36. Truth]**

"What kind of a name is 'Maka' anyway?"

Within moments of first meeting Black Star, the words had come tumbling out of his mouth.

He didn't mean anything by it. It was just a child's natural curiosity. But Maka hadn't been able to answer, and even for the five year old Maka Albarn, being unable to answer any question put to her was akin to being caught with one's pants down.

Her first stop in her quest to put an end to her ignorance was Papa. It was his turn to pick her up at the end of the school day. Maka was about ready to burst when she caught a glimpse of his red hair just outside the classroom door. Forgetting that she wasn't supposed to run indoors, Maka launched herself into her father's knees as soon as the door opened. "Papa, Papa!"

Spirit Albarn laughed, picking his little girl up in a swooping motion, spinning her about once before settling her, bag and all, on his shoulder. "My darling Maka! How was your day? Was it inspiring? Was it full of new discoveries?"

He always asked her this, like ritual. Maka nodded excitedly, the question she'd been preparing in her mind spilling from her mouth before she even had a chance to settle. "Papa, what does Maka mean?"

Spirit paused, Maka swaying gently at the stop in his movement. He moved his head up. "I'm sorry honey, could you say that again?"

"What does my name mean?" Maka wrapped her arms more snugly around her father's neck. "Black Star asked me today and I want to know too."

The thing about Maka at that age was, she thought her Papa knew everything. And the thing about Spirit was, he didn't want to shatter that illusion for her. He laughed, a slightly nervous titter. "Black Star asked you that?"

"Yes." Maka dropped her head down so she could get a better look at Papa's face. "What does my name mean? What does it mean?" She jiggled atop her perch on his shoulder, her excitement growing in proportion with her need to know. Black Star had told her he wouldn't tell her what his name meant unless she told him what hers did first. Well, she would have something to tell him tomorrow, of that she was sure.

"Well, you see Maka..." There was a pause. "I think that's a very good question. And it's one you should ask your mother."

Maka frowned at this. "Why can't you tell me?"

"Well, um, it's just that your mother can explain it better than I can." He pointed at something just outside the school gate. "Maka, why don't we stop at that shop over there?" Maka's gaze followed his. She felt her heart jump.

"The bookstore?"

"Yes. They have a whole selection of new books in. Why don't we go take a look?"

And so Maka's quest to find the meaning behind her name was temporarily abandoned.

---

That night after dinner, Maka got right back on track. It was her bath time, and Mama was here with her now. Papa had gone out, saying he was going to get some fresh air. Mama had frowned at this, but had said nothing, only taking Maka's hand and sitting her down on top of the toilet seat while she filled the tub with water.

When the water was filled, Mama helped her out of her clothes, folding each article and laying it down on the towel rack. Maka raised her hands. She let out a breath when the water hit her skin.

"Mama?" Maka looked up at her mother.

"Hm?" Mama was tipping a shampoo bottle over, watching the liquid pour into her palm.

"What does Maka mean?"

Her mother raised an eyebrow. "Your name?"

"Uh huh. Black Star asked me what my name means today and I want to know."

"Ah." Maka closed her eyes as she felt the shampoo get worked into her hair. Maka smiled. She liked moments like this with Mama, when it was just the two of them, talking. "Well, your name isn't like any other."

"Really?" Maka opened her eyes, excited, but closed them again when her mother pushed her head down. Moments later she felt warm water on her head, spilling down her neck. She shook her head and opened her eyes when it was done.

"Really." Mama smiled, wiping Maka's face clean with a towel. "There's not another Maka in the whole world."

Maka gave this some thought. "I'm glad." She put her arms up as Mama started soaping them. "But what does my name mean?"

Mama laughed. "I'm not sure you would understand it –"

"But I would!" Maka interrupted. "I'm a whole five years and one month old now! I'm old enough to know!"

At this her mother laughed. "I suppose you're right." She paused. "To be honest, I had a hard time coming up with your name." She poured some more water on Maka's arms and back. "I knew that I didn't want you to be just any girl. So I had to be careful in my choice, you see."

Maka nodded. Her mother wouldn't just pick her name for no reason. That much even the five year old knew. "I'll show you after your bath."

At this, Maka frowned. Show her? Why couldn't she just tell her? But she said nothing. She knew Mama wouldn't try and put her off. She would know after her bath.

---

They sat in Maka's room, on her bed. Mama was brushing her hair for her. Maka was reading one of the books Papa had bought for her that afternoon. He was supposed to be reading it to her soon, but he wasn't home yet. Maka knew by now that it wasn't a good idea to ask Mama what was keeping him. She didn't know why, exactly. She just knew not to ask. It was just as well that her mind was on other things at the moment.

"There. All done." Mama patted her on the head, smoothing her hair down with her hand. She set the brush on the bedside table. "Now, do you want to hear a story, or do you want to know about your name?"

Maka set the book down. Of course she wanted to read her story, but she wanted more than anything right now to fill this gap in her knowledge.

Mama stood up and reached for a pencil from Maka's desk. She took up a sheet of drawing paper from a drawer. She sat down once more at her daughter's side. "I don't know all that much Japanese," her mother started, drawing out a series of strokes with the pencil. "Just what Grandma told me when I was growing up. But I did look up the characters." She paused, frowned, erased part of what she'd drawn, and let her pencil slide over the paper again.

"See that first one?" She tapped her finger against the etching. "It means to polish something." She smiled, looking a little embarrassed. "Or, well, something like that. And the second –" She tapped the pencil against the character, "means to discipline, or scold".

Maka blinked. She wasn't sure just why her mother looked embarrassed. That didn't really sound like a bad thing at all. When she asked her mother, she would only laugh. "I named you what I did because I wanted you to be strong. You'll understand in time." There was something Maka couldn't identify; something underneath the surface of her mother's words, but Maka, even at a whole five years old, wasn't able to digest it yet.

At least she could turn around tomorrow and ask just what kind of a name Black Star was.

---

"I see. So that's what happened." Tsubaki folded her hands neatly, one on top of the other. "I wondered. Your name does sound vaguely like it comes from Japan, but it's no name I'd ever heard of." She smiled. "Leave it to your mother to be unique."

"Yep!" Maka grinned. The smile soon faded. "I wish I knew just what she meant by that comment, though." She perked up. "Hey, I still have that paper Mama wrote on. If I showed it to you, do you think you could tell me what it actually means?"

Tsubaki giggled at the way Maka was jumping on the balls of her feet, her hair bouncing with the movement. "Of course, I'd love to."

"Great." Maka ran off to her room. She came back moments later with a piece of paper that looked as though it had seen a lot of years, but was well-preserved nonetheless. She thrust the paper at Tsubaki. She older girl glanced at it. Her eyebrows furrowed. She looked back up at Maka, who was still bouncing on her heels in her excitement.

"Well? Is there some other meaning behind it?"

Tsubaki's response was to stand up and go into the foyer where she'd put her bag. After some moments of rummaging, she came out with a thick book with many thin pages. Maka recognized it immediately.

"A dictionary?"

Nodding, Tsubaki opened it up. Maka tilted her head. Why was Tsubaki walking around carrying a dictionary? The other girl must have caught her look because she laughed embarrassedly. "Black Star wanted to learn some new words."

Maka's eyes widened. Black Star did? Her disbelief was clearly there on her face because Tsubaki blushed and shook her head. "You know that one time I taught him what 'axis' meant?" Maka remembered. For weeks on end, Black Star had spent a lot of time spinning on the spot, as though he could change the location of the earth's axis with his sheer willpower.

"Well," Tsubaki continued, "he said he wanted to know more words that would fit a big man." She tittered, her cheeks flushed pink. "I think it's kind of adorable."

Ah. Maka settled for nodding. The thing about Tsubaki was, she was very proud of Black Star. All of his achievements, no matter how minor (and sometimes, Maka privately thought, no matter how stupid) merited encouragement from the weapon.

No matter, though. Tsubaki had found the right page and was showing it to Maka. "This is the first character your mother wrote."

Maka took up the book, her eyes darting eagerly to where Tsubaki's finger was. Her brows furrowed as she honed in on the fine print. Her mouth worked out the words.

Scrape. Polish. Chafe. Okay, so this obviously wasn't the kind of polish she thought her mother had meant. This was the hardcore kind of polishing needed to smooth out a rough diamond or something. She gave the book back to Tsubaki, who flipped the pages to find the second character. When the book was handed silently back to her, Maka again followed where Tsubaki indicated.

So that part had been right. Maka blinked. Chafe and scold.

She should have felt insulted. But the only thing she could do was smile. Tsubaki glanced at Maka's profile, her face nervous. "Maka-chan?"

Maka turned to look at her friend. "Thank you, Tsubaki." She handed the dictionary back to her friend.

Tsubaki paused. "Are... you all right?"

"Of course!" Maka beamed. "Why wouldn't I be?" And really, why _shouldn't_ she be? As far as she was concerned, this discovery was right up there with learning how to fly: it felt just as exhilarating, as though she was up on the very clouds themselves. Mama had wanted her to become strong. And this was something Maka could do. Was doing. It just confirmed in her mind that no one knew her as well as Mama did.

_Thank you, Mama. I promise, I'll live up to your legacy. _

She was going to make her Mama_ proud_.


	8. Chapter 8

**A Maka for All Seasons**

**By DarkAngel**

_Disclaimer:_ Atsushi Ohkubo owns it. I don't.

* * *

**[32. Passion, 42. Addicted & 29. Shiver]**

"You know, if you keep reading in the dark like that, your eyes are going to go bad." The voice is warm in Maka Albarn's ear, and sends a shiver up her spine. She feels a pair of arms slip around her shoulders from behind. Moving her head away from his mouth, which is trailing warm kisses down her jawline, she wonders why he always seems to crave her attention right when she's in the middle of a good book.

"It's not dark," Maka says, batting at the vicinity of his head. There's plenty of sunlight pouring through the window, after all. He just laughs and moves back, though his arms stay around her. She glares. "Don't you have anything better to do than bother me while I'm reading?"

His grip tightens and he leans in to whisper against her ear, "That's why I'm here right now." His teeth scrape against the shell of her ear and she does her best to suppress the groan that's trying to make its way out of her throat. Putting the book down on the table in front of her, she attempts to squirm out of Soul's grip.

"Come on, Soul. Why do you always do this to me when I'm reading?"

Soul chuckles at that. "Come on, Maka. When are you not reading?" He presses his lips to the back of her neck. She shivers violently when she feels his tongue following a line from the base of her neck to just below her hairline. "If I didn't know any better, I'd say you were addicted to books." His voice is teasing, tickling the hairs near her ear.

"S-Soul." Damn it, it's hard to think when he's doing these... things to her. Maka flushes. She never imagined, when they became romantically involved, that he would be so tactile. He'd once admitted to her that he'd been afraid to come close to people; to touch them, and let himself be touched. _But you changed that, Maka_.

"What were you reading anyway?" Soul murmurs, a hand moving to tug at the neck of her shirt so he can get better access to her shoulder. He laps at the skin there, letting his teeth scrape against the skin. Maka gasps, her hands shooting out to clutch the edge of the table. She breathes deeply, trying to combat the dizziness that's overtaking her. She can feel a warmth starting in her belly and rising up to settle heavily, languorously, against her chest. Her partner chuckles, moving back from her. He comes around the chair to face her, on his knees. Through the part of her mind that isn't clouded over, she notes that even up on his knees, he comes up to her shoulder. Just when did he get so tall?

"I love how you react when I touch you," he growls, his voice low and husky, scraping against her nerve endings. "Do you have any idea how hot that makes me?" He grabs one of her hands and guides it between his legs, pressing up against her for emphasis. She flushes an even deeper shade of red and looks away, biting at her lip to keep the moan back.

"Maka." His voice is liquid silver down her spine, melting her slowly until she can't discern where she starts and the chair ends; what parts of her are hers, and what parts are Soul's. "Maka, look at me." He takes her face in his hands. She opens her eyes and comes face to face with molten garnet. Instantly her whole body heats up. The strange feeling that's been coiling in her belly flares, and when their lips crash against each other's, she knows she's lost. And to think, she'd been planning on spending a quiet afternoon reading...

As Soul picks her up, Maka glances back at the book, now forgotten on the kitchen table. When it comes to choosing that book and the boy carrying her away, she knows that there is always only one choice in the end. She can't get enough of him; she's as good as addicted. She wraps her arms around him, threading her fingers through his hair as he moves in to kiss her again.

She wouldn't have it any other way.

* * *

_Author's Notes: _I wanted to write something smutty, but I couldn't bring myself to do it. This is probably the closest I'll get for a really long time. Anyway...

Hope you enjoyed.


	9. Chapter 9

**A Maka for all Seasons**

**By DarkAngel**

_Disclaimer:_ Atsushi Ohkubo owns Soul Eater. I do not. C'est la vie, non?

* * *

**[20. Changing]**

_Note: _This takes place after Kid gets out from Noah's book.

One of the first comments Kid made as soon as he was released from his hardbound prison was about Maka's hair. Or rather, about her choice in hair accessories.

"Maka, I don't mean to be rude, but there's an imbalance in your symmetry."

The girl in question blinked. "Um... there is?" She checked herself. As far as she could see, everything was all right. Her Spartoi uniform was clean and freshly laundered; there were no loose threads or buttons in sight; she'd ironed the pleats in her skirt that very morning, so they stood out crisply against the rest of her ensemble. No, there was nothing wrong as far as she could see. She glanced up again, shooting Kid a questioning glance.

"Yes," Kid said, nodding emphatically. He reached out and tugged at one of Maka's ponytails. "Your hair ties don't match."

Ah. So that was the problem. Maka smiled, though the expression came out more as a grimace. "Yeah, I suppose they don't." She hoped he would drop the topic, but Kid would never let asymmetry lie. He frowned, his golden eyes focused on the imperfection. He shook his head and muttered something about it being 'unsightly'. If Maka wasn't used to Kid's antics, she would have found that insulting. As it was, she could only sigh inwards and wait for the inevitable.

"You know, they sell those as a set in the shop on Reaper Lane and 3rd." And so they did. The shop was known for selling all kinds of things Death related – including little hair bobbles in the shape of Shinigami-sama's skull mask – exactly the same as Maka was wearing on one side of her head. How Kid knew that, though, she wasn't sure she wanted to ask. Must be Liz and Patti. "If you like, I can buy you a new set." As though the one she was wearing was defective.

"That's nice of you, Kid, but I'm fine with the one I've got." He really didn't remember, and she had no desire to tell him. The first time they had met; that one time she'd worn those ribbons in her hair; that other time when they'd had the party at Kid's house. There was only one occasion she could recall when Kid hadn't made a huge fuss over the symmetry of her hair accessories and that was when she'd attended the dance on the night Shibusen was founded. Then again, Kid had been distracted by other things at the time. There was one moment in particular that really stood out in her mind.

_She'd decided to change things up a bit that day. Instead of putting her hair up with the clear plastic bands she used for her ponytails, she picked out dark green satin ribbons instead. She hadn't worn ribbons like these since she was a little girl, but she was feeling kind of nostalgic that morning. And besides, the green matched with the stripes in her tie. _

_She came out of her room humming a mindless little tune; making up the notes as she went. Soul was already in the kitchen. He turned around when he heard her come in. _

_"Morning, Maka."_

_"Morning!" she chirped back, taking a seat at the table. Soul raised an eyebrow at her chipper tone but said nothing else. Nothing about the hair ribbons. Nada. _

_And although she waited all morning, all throughout breakfast, she didn't get one single comment. Not even a "you look different today". _

_Hmph. Boys._

_They rode Soul's bike to Shibusen. As they made their way up the steps leading to the main building, they heard someone calling their names. Turning around, Maka's face lit up and she waved to Kid, Liz and Patti._

_"Good morning!" she called out. _

_Liz waved and Patti leapt a good three feet into the air, waving both arms energetically. Kid opened his mouth to greet them – then stopped. His mouth opened wide. His eyes widened so that they looked like two golden saucers. It would have looked comical if it wasn't for the disturbing gleam in his eye that he got when he was thinking about –_

_"They're so symmetrical! You've really outdone yourself today, Maka! It never ceases to amaze me how well you can get the balance right. I've never seen anything so beautiful! And they match your eyes, too!"_

_Before she had the chance to blink, Kid was right up in her face, examining her ribbons and her eyes in turn. Oh gods, this was awkward. She attempted a smile, though she suspected she wasn't doing a very good job of it. "Hello, Kid."_

_Thankfully that seemed to pull him from his obsession. He made a sound that was something between a deep exhalation and an "oh". Clearing his throat, he took a step back, though he was still much too close for Maka's personal comfort. She shot a pleading look over his shoulder at Liz, who immediately stepped in, grabbing Kid about the shoulders and turning him in the direction of the main entrance. _

_"Come on, Kid. We're going to be late. We've got Phys. Ed. first thing, too." She perked her voice up so high it sounded slightly strained, but Kid didn't seem to notice this, as his mind was taken up with their upcoming class._

_"Yes, that's right." Kid straightened his jacket. "Today will be the day that I hit 8 seconds flat." Liz rolled her eyes and Patti giggled, and they went on their way. Maka and Soul followed a few steps behind, Maka fingering her hair in consideration as they went. Kid had complimented her symmetry before; it hadn't been the first time, and she doubted it would be the last. And while she liked Kid and his company, she didn't want to get jumped like she had today. There had to be a way to get through to him without being rude..._

_"Why don't you throw yourself off kilter?" Soul suggested when she brought it up with him. He raised his eyebrows, looking her up and down. "I know you like things nice and neat, but let's face it: you're just asking for Kid to jump you the way you are now."_

_Maka's brows knitted at that. "What do you mean?" She didn't think there was anything particularly different or special about the way she presented herself. Soul raised his eyes up to the ceiling – it wasn't an eye roll, but it served the same purpose. "Look, just let me do this." And he pushed his weight off of the wall he'd been leaning on and came forward. He reached up. Maka blinked as she felt something in her hair loosen, and the whisper of fabric. Soul held her green ribbon clutched in between his fingers. His mouth quirked in that familiar crooked grin. _

_"There. Mission accomplished." _

_Maka raised a sceptical eyebrow. "That's all it's going to take, huh."_

_Soul grinned. "That's all it's gonna take."_

Which brought her to her present situation. The suggestion was supposed to keep Kid _off _of her. _Brilliant idea_, Maka thought despairingly. Had she honestly expected Soul's harebrained plan to work? Never mind that she had thought it was a good idea at the time; the thing was, it wasn't working out now, and the scheme was therefore harebrained.

Kid looked like he was about to burst. "Maka, please. It's no trouble at all. If you like, I can go and buy them for you." Oh gods above, he was actually pleading. He was even now getting on his knees, and Maka flushed, knowing that Kid was only getting started. She looked around frantically for help but Liz and Patti were nowhere in sight. Neither was her partner.

Maka took a step back. "Kid..." She would have Maka chopped him, but she knew he wasn't trying to be rude or obnoxious. He couldn't help being this way. For better or for worse, this was what Kid was about. She tried to smile, though the expression was rather shaky. "Come on, Kid. Get up." She tried to modulate her voice to the kindest pitch possible. She wondered just what she could say to get him back on his feet again. In the end, she realized that only one thing would do it. "All right. You're right. I'll go after school and get another one to match."

Kid's head shot up, his eyes sparkling with... relief? Happiness? Something else? Maka took another involuntary step back. But Kid, using his god-given reflexes, leapt up, grabbing her hands.

"Great! Well, why wait for a good thing? Let's go now!"

"Er, now?" Maka blanched, trying to tug her hands out of his grasp. She shook her head. "Kid, we've got class." She renewed her now not-so-subtle search for a saviour. Kid had gotten better about his obsessions lately. Why in the world was he insisting they cut class to buy _hair accessories_?

Damn it, she was running out of options. Just as she was reaching around to wrench herself out of his grasp, she heard a set of laconic footsteps and looked up. She had to stop herself giggling. She wasn't sure how to feel. She'd never been so happy to see her partner than at this moment, but...

"What's the hold up?" Soul said grumpily, hands shoved deep into his jacket pockets. "I came back here because you two weren't following." He raised enquiring eyebrows at the position his Meister and Kid were in. "What are you doing?"

It hit Maka then what it looked like. Kid's hands enfolding both of her, him looking into her eyes like that; the fact that they were standing barely ten centimetres apart. If it were possible, Maka flushed an even deeper shade of red. If she had a free hand, she would have slapped it to her forehead. This day was just going to keep getting worse, wasn't it?

Kid looked up. His expression morphed from annoyance to surprise to curiosity. Slowly, he stood up. "Soul."

The white-haired teen in question tilted his head in response. "Kid."

"You... changed your hairstyle."

Soul grinned, revealing a row of very sharp white teeth. "Yeah. I did."

Neither Maka or Kid could stop staring. Soul had gathered up his bangs and tied the hair back off his forehead. The thing was, he was using her hair tie. The very same one she was wearing in her right ponytail. She bit down on the inside of her cheek and managed to choke out his name.

He grinned at her, and she bit down harder to make sure a laugh didn't escape. The hair tie combined with his hair band... It was too much. He looked like a one-eared rabbit. Oh, her world for a camera...

Instead, she schooled her features into a pleasant smile. "Thank you, Soul. You're right. We should get going." She jogged – practically ran – to his side. She turned back to Kid. "Are you coming?"

The god stared at them, his mouth agape. Maka felt sorry for him – after all, he really couldn't help his compulsions. She stuck out a hand. "Come on Kid," she said gently. "Let's go."

After some moments he nodded, still dumbstruck; nevertheless, he took her hand and they made their way into the building. As soon as they were in the classroom and seated in their regular spots, Maka gave Soul a sideways glance. "Care to explain?" she said lowly out of the corner of her mouth.

"Explain what?" He gave her a quick glance before turning his attention back to the front of the class.

"The hair tie," she hissed, unwilling to let him shrug it off by playing dumb.

He shrugged. "You should be glad I had it with me when I did," he remarked coolly. He gave her a pointed look. "And you should be paying attention."

That, coming from him was rich. Soul spent a good portion of his time in lectures staring off into space or sleeping. He was never actually interested in what the teachers had to say. She narrowed her eyes at him. "That's my hair tie."

"One of them, yeah," came the bored reply.

"And you just happened to have it with you."

"That's my story and I'm sticking with it."

Maka paused, taking stock of their conversation. Then she smiled. "Well, thank you."

Soul didn't look her way, but she could see the eyebrow quirking. "You're welcome."

"I think it's rather sweet, actually. Better than matching rings." There wasn't even a hint of a change in her voice. She picked up her pen and began taking notes.

There was a stunned silence. Score one for Maka, she thought, putting a flourish on a 't' as she continued taking notes.

She wasn't expecting the smooth chuckle. She stopped, looking up at her partner. His eyes were warm, his mouth quirked up in that way simultaneously said that he was amused, and that he had found a new toy to bat around. "Well it's about damned time you noticed," he said. He pointed up at his still bunched bangs. "I thought I really was going to have to get a ring or flowers or something clichéd before you caught on." He chuckled again and turned back to his notes, his shoulders still shaking with his amusement.

Maka gawped at him. No. No way. She opened her mouth, once, twice. Tried to say something, anything. But nothing came out.

"Keep getting distracted like this, Maka, and you're going to be the one borrowing my notes," Soul murmured, the smallest hint of a smile tugging at his mouth.

With a gasp, Maka turned back to her notes. She could feel her cheeks burning. Damn him. And just what had he meant by that? No, no. She knew. _But he can't be serious._ _He –_

Maka spent the rest of the lecture mulling over Soul's words. Needless to say, the notes she took weren't the best.

_Damn you, Soul_.

* * *

_Author's Notes:_ I've been trying for ages to find something that suits this theme and this is the closest I could get to a decent product. See DA. See DA headdesk. Anyway, let me know what you think. And gods help me with the remaining themes I've got to work with – they're all body part-related! D:


	10. Chapter 10

**A Maka for All Seasons**

**By DarkAngel**

_Disclaimer: _It aten't mine, and not all the headology in the world es gonna make it mine, see?

_Summary: _It's a special day for Blair, Maka and Soul.

* * *

**[39. Pet]**

"Hey Maka, do you know what today is?"

Maka looked up from her reading. She hadn't had much time to attend regular classes since making Soul a Death Scythe and becoming a member of Spartoi. That's why she'd taken it upon herself to do her reading and assignments at home, never mind what Soul said about her not needing to do the assignments. Spartoi member or not, two-star meister or not, it wouldn't do to flunk out of Shibusen before she got what she needed to done. If only Soul could feel the same way about it... Setting those thoughts aside, she looked down at the little bundle of black fur at her feet.

"What day it is? It's a Wednesday if I'm not mistaken. Why do you ask?" The book in her lap shifted, threatening to slide right off as Blair jumped up onto it. Maka made a hasty noise and scrambled to catch the book and keep the cat in her lap. Blair giggled, nimbly dodging Maka's hand and making a leap onto her head. The book flopped out of Maka's lap and landed with a rustle of pages onto the hardwood floor. Maka sighed.

"It is a Wednesday, but that's not what I'm getting at." Blair's tail curled around Maka's neck, the end of it flicking against her throat. Maka squirmed. "Think anniversaries."

"Anniversaries?" Maka gave her feline companion's tail a flick, and Blair obediently wrapped her tail around herself.

"Mm hmm. A very important day for you and me and Soul too." There was a smug, pleased note in Blair's voice. Maka tried to think of what this day could mean. It wasn't anyone's birthday. She glanced at the calendar on the wall but found no clues there. An important day... for the three of them?

From the top of her head Blair sighed. "I see I'm going to have to give you a little hint." She leapt down again, landing lightly in Maka's lap. Golden eyes peered at her beseechingly. "It doesn't matter what shape it is or what it looks like. What matters is the soul." Maka blinked at the gruff voice.

"Is that... supposed to be Soul?" Blair grinned at her and Maka laughed. He wouldn't appreciate the imitation. "He did say that, didn't he?" She thought back to their early hunting days. Those had been good days. Hectic and frustrating; and had argued a lot. Well, maybe that part of their relationship remained the same. Maka's lips twitched up in a rueful, resigned smile. But they had come out of it stronger and closer than before.

"You know, I don't think I ever thanked you."

"Hm?" Blair's ears twitched as Maka's fingers scratched behind them. She purred, nuzzling her head into the girl's hand.

"We were so close to making Soul a Death Scythe. But now that I think about it, I don't think either of us would have been prepared for it." They had been so young then. They were still young, still kids, but back then they had been even younger. Thinking of the responsibilities they had now, she knew they wouldn't have been able to handle them nearly as well back then. She wondered how Justin had coped with it – and he had been alone. Maybe that was part of what had set him adrift.

"You're warm, oh so warm." Blair's voice interrupted her musing. She headbutted the palm of Maka's hand. "Think of a very specific day he said that about souls."

"Hm? Well..." Maka tried to refocus her thoughts. They'd been close to their first set of 100 souls, right? They had defeated a demonic soul and the only thing they'd had left to do was... "Ninety-nine demonised souls and one witch's soul." Maka blinked. She looked down at the cat. "That was you." There had been reports of a witch taking up residence not far from Death City. Nobody had bothered to give the matter more than a cursory glance and so Maka and Soul had gone hunting, thinking that they were out to get a witch.

Blair grinned, showing Maka a set of sharp white teeth. "You've figured it out then?"

She thought some more. She blinked again. "Is today the day we met you?" The words came out slowly, cautiously. Had it really been the first day they'd met Blair? It seemed like such a long time ago that she couldn't pinpoint the exact day, but now that she thought about it, it had been early summer. Soul had been eagerly triumphant, crowing something about being the coolest of the cool... and being able to skip out on school once he became a Death Scythe. The perfect start to a summer vacation, or something like that.

"Bingo!" Blair giggled, batting her paw teasingly at Maka's nose. "It took you a while to figure out. You're supposed to be smart, meow?"

"Oh shut up." There was no venom in the words, however. Maka gave Blair a fond pat on the head. She thought about it for a moment. They had tried to hunt Blair and lost. Their soul collection count had been reset. Blair had moved in with them. The last year and a bit had been spent getting Soul back up to count. She jerked. Blair looked up at her curiously.

"Did..." She blushed. "Er, did I ever apologize for trying to kill you?"

Blair's eyes widened. Maka grimaced. Okay, that hadn't been the best segue in the world.

But Blair only giggled. "Oh, Maka, I forgave you a long time ago. And besides," she said, slanting a look her way "I tried to kill you too. I was serious about it at the time, you know."

"Oh." Maka gulped. She'd seen what Blair was capable of when she was serious. The run in with the Flying Dutchman at the abandoned factory in Russia came to mind. But Blair only laughed again. "Weeeeeellll, I may have gone a little easy on you. That might have lost me one life. But it's a small price to pay." Blair nuzzled into Maka's stomach, mewling. "Do you know what life was like for me before you came to my little house?" When she shook her head, Blair said, "You know how I said I'm a cat with extraordinary magical ability?" Maka nodded. "I had an owner before... a long, long time ago.

"I loved her very much, but while humans generally live longer than their pets, the magic I was born with pretty much guaranteed that I would outlive her." Blair gave a soft mew. "I tried a lot of things over the centuries, but I generally did it alone." She pawed at Maka's face. "Most people just want a house cat. They don't want a house cat that can talk back or abracadabra things out of thin air. And you're not the first person to fall under the impression that I'm a witch."

Maka swallowed the lump that suddenly threatened to block the air from her throat. It was hard to imagine what Blair's life might have been like before. She was always so happy and carefree. She couldn't imagine Blair being anything more or less than what she was now.

"Thank you, Maka," Blair said when Maka told her this. "That's one of the nicest things I've ever heard."

"But why didn't you tell us earlier? I mean –" Maka did a brief run through in her head. "It's been over a year. You could have told us that first year you came to live with us."

"I would have, but you and Soul were busy with other things then." Blair didn't look sad or upset at that. "And it doesn't matter. What matters is here and now."

"Yeah." Maka smiled, stroking Blair's head. "Well, Happy Anniversary." She deposited Blair on a couch cushion. She bent down to pick up her book. "Say Blair?"

"Hm?"

"How do you feel about having a special dinner tonight? I'll make your favourite dishes." Blair knew how Maka felt about fish, and her eyes widened for just a fraction of a second before she squealed in delight. "Really?" Blair batted golden cat eyes at her. "Even bouillabaisse?"

"Yeah. Even bouillabaisse." Maka nodded. Blair let out a happy squeal.

Had it really been just over a year? It felt like so long ago, those days she and Soul had spent trying to make him a Death Scythe. And so much had happened. Blair had come into their lives. They'd met Kid and the Thompson sisters. Asura had been resurrected. They'd defeated a real witch. So much had happened in a just that short space of time. And who knew what would happen to them in another year?

As Maka set to work preparing the ingredients for Blair's anniversary feast, she looked over to the cat who'd become such an integral part of their lives. Her eyes crinkled in a smile. She had no idea what would happen. But as long as she had friends like these, she was sure she'd be able to make it through anything.

* * *

_Author's Notes: _It's been a long time since I've written anything, and I'm definitely feeling it! I'm not satisfied with the way this fic turned out – there's something missing from it. The spark I feel with some fics isn't here in this one. Ah, well. It's all part of the recuperative process. I need to start writing – period – before I can start writing well again. :)


	11. Chapter 11

**A Maka for All Seasons**

**By DarkAngel**

_Disclaimer: _Soul Eater belongs to Atsushi Ohkubo.

_Author's Notes:_ A rehabilitative exercise to ward off a long bout of writer's block.

_Warning: _There are spoilers for the recent chapters of the comics. If the words "Noah", "Gopher" or "Book of Eibon" are a mystery to you, I suggest reading at your own risk. :)

* * *

**[01. Smear]**

For what seemed like the hundredth time that day, Maka squirmed uncomfortably in her hospital bed. The pillows propping her up did nothing to alleviate her discomfort; if anything, they only seemed to aggravate her problem. She frowned, trying to concentrate on her book, but the problem persisted. She lifted a hand from her book.

"Don't scratch it." A dry voice from beside her said, also for what seemed like the hundredth time. She shot her companion a glare. He only raised pale eyebrows at her, and she relented. She knew he meant it for her own good, but –

"It itches," she grumbled irritably. She slammed her book shut. "And we've been stuck in here for over two days now. I want to go home." She blew an explosive breath. "I don't see how you can be so calm about this."

Soul only shrugged. He was used to his meister's prickly nature, and he knew more than anybody else that one of the things that irritated her the most was not being able to do anything, especially when there were things that needed doing. Maka knew that he knew all this, and that just irritated her more. He'd long ago stopped arguing with her about it, choosing instead to let her anger wash over him. Damn him for being so composed. He was supposed to be angry. He supposed to be yelling at her. He wasn't supposed to be placid about it. Especially because...

Maka dropped her gaze from Soul's, biting on the inside of her he would have another scar, another big gaping wound to top – literally top – the one he'd gotten in Italy. She couldn't even blame Girrico. Soul had, as he had the last time, stood in the way of danger when she'd refused to fight. How many more strikes was he going to take for her? How much more of his blood would she be smeared in before he finally gave in and... She swallowed, suddenly feeling nauseous.

Soul must have sensed something, because he called her name. She looked up warily. "What?"

Deep garnet eyes held hers, the look on his face dead serious. Bad choice of words; Maka winced. Soul frowned.

"Whatever you're thinking about, stop." With a pained grunt, he swung himself over to the edge of his hospital bed. Maka's mouth drew into a thin line. She was about to open her mouth but he cut her off with a gesture. He made his way to her, a determined look on his face. She scooted over so he could sit at the edge of her bed. Soul glared. "It isn't your fault. Don't even try to shoulder the blame on yourself." He crossed his arms over his chest, though it didn't escape Maka's notice that he did it gingerly.

He noticed her stare and his glare intensified. "Don't," he gritted it. "Think. About. It." They glared at each other. Maka slammed herself back into her pillows with a huff, hissing when the action sent a shock of pain down her back.

"Maka!" She swatted his attempts to help her away and they glared at each other some more. They stared each other down and then, suddenly, they were both laughing, holding their wounds as the laughter disturbed their still tender frames. "We're pathetic," Soul wheezed, hands clutching his chest. Maka leaned back into the pillows, a tear rolling down her cheek.

"Yeah, we're pathetic." She gave a great sigh, wiping the tear away. She smiled fondly at him. He smiled back, a genuine expression void of his usual sarcasm or snarky humour. She only shook her head.

"I'm sorry," she said after a while. She reached out a hand to his chest, feeling the raised skin and stitches through the fabric of his thin shirt. He clasped her hand, tightening his fingers over hers.

"What did I say about apologizing?" he said in a rumbling voice. He wormed his other hand behind her back, soothing the itching sensation. She sighed, leaning into him. They were both pathetic. They were both too stubborn for their own good, and too unwilling the address the things that really mattered. The things that lay buried beneath the surface.

"I'll get stronger," she said, feeling Soul shift so her head rested in the juncture between his shoulder and chin. He made a humming noise. The noise was deeper when she was this close to him. "I promise. And..." She fumbled for words. What could she say? That she wouldn't let some manifestation from an ancient book mess with her mind again? That she would fight for the both of them because the thought of losing him once had been unbearable enough, but almost losing him a second time was enough for her to want to rend her own heart out?

He seemed to understand. His arms tightened around her. "I know." She wasn't sure, but she thought she could feel his lips brush against her forehead, the ghost of his breath on her skin.

It would only get harder on them, she knew. They were far from finished with what they need to do. Her hand tightened on Soul's sleeve. There was a very large possibility that one or both of them could be seriously injured or die along the way. She closed her eyes tightly, swallowing hard against the lump of misery that threatened to disgorge itself from her throat at the thought. She could feel his pulse against her cheek and tightened her grip on his sleeve. The irony could have made her laugh if it wasn't so bleak. Perhaps she was more her father's daughter than she thought.

Maka swallowed. What if she never got the chance to say anything? Their occupations being what they were, and her being every Medusa and Noah's It Girl, the chances were depressingly small, no matter how much protection Shinigami-sama and Shibusen afforded her. And of course, they were in the thick of everything, being Shibusen's elite.

"Soul?" His name was out of her mouth before she had a chance to stop herself, before she had the chance to think. She took a sharp breath. _What the hell am I doing? _But she was reaching out for him. "Soul, I –"

A soft noise reached her ears. Carefully, Maka leaned away from her partner, giving him a slight nudge so she could see his face. She could have chopped him.

He was sleeping. Mouth open, eyes shut, his head lolled against her arm.

Stupid. Stupid, stupid, stupid rabbit boy. Stupid her. Disgusted, she disentangled herself from him, ready to let him drop.

"Ma... ka..." Soul mumbled something else before his lead lolled the other way, landing with a thump on her chest. She sighed. So much for just dropping him on his graceless ass. With her back screaming in protest, she dragged him onto her bed – it was far easier than dragging him and lifting him onto his.

He made a pitiful moaning noise and shifted, arms splaying out. One of them smacked them in her side and she bit down a growl. Stupid Soul. And to think, she had been ready to tell him something important. She gave him a shove and he snuffled, curling into himself. His fingers twitched, curling around her waist. With a final twitch, he was back to snoring. Maka's gaze softened.

Maybe... Maybe when he woke up, she would tell him. Or maybe she would sleep, and forget about it. Whatever the outcome, he would be here when she woke up. She'd make her decision then.

Good night, Soul.

* * *

_Author's Notes:_ After a long case of writer's block, I decided to release something, simply because I felt that nothing would come of waiting. In the end, I came out with this. It has no deep meaning and doesn't go anywhere, but I felt it made a halfway decent rehabilitative exercise.

I've got a lot of ideas bubbling in my brain at the moment, so I guess I'll type them all out one by one. Even if I don't think they're all that good, I'll leave it to you to decide.


	12. Chapter 12

**A Maka for All Seasons**

**By DarkAngel**

_Disclaimer: _Soul Eater doesn't belong to me.

* * *

**[02. Scrape]**

* * *

"This is all your fault," Maka muttered murderously, shooting her most vicious glare at Black Star and Soul. She cursed inelegantly as she scraped at a particularly stubborn wad of gum wedged in the cleft under a desk. Beside her Tsubaki silently continued her own work, the sounds of the metal scraper rasping against the wood filling her ears.

Black Star only laughed. The bastard wasn't even doing any work, and it was _his_ fault they were in this situation in the first place! And Soul! He should know better! He was supposed to be _cool_. He was supposed to have _matured_.

She had no idea where they'd gotten the explosives. All she knew was that one minute she'd been sitting in class watching Stein prepare to dissect some poor endangered creature. The moment Stein's scalpel had made contact with the creature, it had exploded, leaving a wide spread of goopy mess that stuck to the walls, desks and several unfortunate students who'd been sitting closer to the front.

With a grunt, she got a large chunk of the gum separated from the desk. She chucked it at the back of Black Star's head and he caught it, like the infuriating, insufferable prick he was. "AHAHAHA! It'll take more than a puny wad of gum chucked by your puny little girl arms to get the likes of me!" Without so much as a glance, he lobbed the wad at the trash can, where it landed with a decisive clunking sound. Maka's jaw clenched.

Tsubaki, sensing the danger, looked up from her work. "Black Star."

The way she said his name was gentle, but something about it seemed to work, for the blue-haired boy gave a great sigh and leapt off the table, letting his comic book slide off the desk as he tossed it behind him. "Yeah, yeah." He bounded to the back of the classroom, grabbing a scraper as he went. Maka raised her eyebrows. How did she do that? She'd known Black Star since she was a kid and she'd never gotten him to listen with one word like that. She shook her head in wonderment.

"Ow! Goddamn!" Maka ignored the stream of inelegant curses, only watching coolly as her partner's head shot up from between a row of desks. He was rubbing at his head with his free hand, muttering something she couldn't catch. She sniffed. She didn't see why he should complain. If anything, she should be the one grumbling, since it wasn't even her fault. She hadn't been in any way involved.

She went back to checking under the desks in her assigned row. As she went, her mind wandered. Now that she thought about it, it had been a good long while since either Black Star or Soul had done something as puerile as this. She frowned. As a matter of fact, the last time Black Star had pranked anyone like this was before they'd become members of Spartoi. And as for Soul... she reached back into her memories. She remembered yelling at him for that disaster involving Black Star, his motorcycle and the doughnut shop.

Good lord. He'd been wearing that yellow and black letterman jacket of his then. She blinked, rocking back on her heels. That had been more than a year ago. She contemplated the gum stuck under one of the benches. So much had happened in that time. If she really wanted to get philosophical about it, then this gum was probably as old as they'd been when they were 12 year olds. Sure, Black Star still went around yelling about how he was the biggest and the best, but he'd stopped trying to break the school apart to make his point (much to Kid's relief). And Soul might still be lazy and sarcastic, but he'd long ago stopped drooling and slouching and skipping class.

Maka was so caught up in her thoughts she didn't realize they'd finished cleaning the desks and benches until she heard Black Star's loud, revolted groan.

"Oh man. This is gonna be a bitch. Why do gods like me have to do this scud work anyway? This is more for peons like Hiro."

Maka had to admit, it was pretty gruesome. Chunks of Stein's erstwhile experiment covered a whole three rows and spread out as from one end of the classroom to the other. The sight and the added stench made her want to retch, and it was with great difficulty that she swallowed down the urge.

Soul and Tsubaki wordlessly grabbed the latex gloves they'd been oh-so-kindly provided. ("Just be thankful I'm in a merciful mood," Stein had said mildly, although the glint of his eyes under his glasses belied any mercy. I could have made you clean this all by hand.") Maka reluctantly grabbed a pair. When this was done, she was going to soak in the bathtub for an hour. The formaldehyde was definitely starting to get to her. Ugh.

As they worked, Maka flicked a glance at her partner. He kept his head down, scraping innards off of the metallic surface of the gurney and depositing them into a bag for biohazardous materials. Off to the side, Black Star had given up any pretence of trying to help and was sitting way at the back of the classroom, yukking it up over his stupid comic book. She gave Soul a nudge.

"Why'd you do it?" she asked lowly. She gave him a soft nudge to show she wasn't angry. He glanced at her briefly before looking back at his work. Maka sighed. "This isn't you, Soul. At least, I thought you didn't do this kind of thing anymore." She paused. "Am I wrong?"

Those last words seemed to do the trick. With a soft sigh, he dumped the rag he'd been wiping the lectern with down. He shifted slightly, jerking his head shortly, indicating Black Star and Tsubaki. "I dunno why." Before Maka could retort, he spoke again. "I mean, it wasn't even that it sounded like a good idea at the time." Soul's brows scrunched together. "But I dunno, it felt like I was letting myself go." He scratched at the back of his head. "I kind of forgot what being a kid was like before going through with it."

Maka rocked back on her heels. He'd said the exact same thing she'd been thinking. She pursed her lips for a moment in thought.

The thing is he was right. What Shibusen put them through more or less guaranteed that they wouldn't have a normal childhood. With the missions and the danger they put themselves in almost daily, that was a given. And then there were added factors like Soul's Black Blood, Maka's Grigori Soul, and the fact that they were taking on the added rigours of being Spartoi members. When she thought about it, they were living lives just as strenuous and unrelenting as that of an adult. She couldn't even remember the last time they had all played basketball. Now that she thought about it, she rarely left the confines of Death City without someone shadowing her – not since Medusa's attempt on her life.

"I see." _Forgetting what it's like to be a kid, huh? _Then she smiled. "Hey, Black Star! Tsubaki! What do you say after this we hit the showers and then go out to the basketball courts? We can get some burgers and shakes at the diner after!" They looked at her as if she'd lost her head, but Maka's grin never let up. She tugged Soul up with her. "Come on! Let's get this done with fast so we can get out of here! Let's go, let's go!" She picked up her sponge with renewed vigour.

"What's gotten into Maka?" Black Star asked, leaping down to the front of the classroom again, blue brows raised so high they disappeared into his hair. Tsubaki only shook her head. "Maka-chan?"

Maka only shrugged. Behind her, she could hear Soul's scoffing smirk. She turned around and grinned at him. "Soul agrees with me, right Soul?"

Soul stared at her for some moments, his lazy grin in place, his eyes a warm shade of red she rarely saw on him these days. His mouth twitched, showing one sharp incisor. "Yeah," he drawled at last. He shuffled to the others. "Come on. Let's get this over with."

As everyone - including Black Star - returned to his work, Soul grinned at her. "You're the coolest meister ever, you know that?"

"I know." Soul rolled his eyes at her cocky response.

"Brat."

"Prick."

"Bookworm."

"Idiot."

"Tiny tits."

"Maka chop!"

"Ow! Fuck it, Maka!"

She'd forgotten how much fun being a kid could be.


	13. Chapter 13

**A Maka for All Seasons**

**By DarkAngel**

_Disclaimer: _Soul Eater belongs wholly to Atsushi Ohkubo. I'm just borrowing his characters for a bit of fun.

**[04. Bite, 18. Torn, 20. Changing]**

* * *

"So," Liz drawled, crossing her arms, eyes on Maka. "Is there something you want to tell us?"

They – they meaning Liz, Patti, Tsubaki and Maka – were in one of Death City's many streetside cafes, enjoying the boons of a cool summer breeze. It had rained the night before, and the torrential rains had left in their wake a cool wind and lower temperatures they rarely got the pleasure of enjoying in the sweltering heat that enveloped Death City.

Maka's brow twitched up. The older girl was always on the lookout for excitement and gossip, and today was no exception. She carefully put down her frozen mango latte-filled plastic cup. "Share what?" She leaned back in the plastic patio chair, looking around at the others at the table. Patti was scarfing down her sandwich and a large plate of cookies, her mouth so full she looked kind of like a hamster with full cheek pouches. Tsubaki was taking a demure sip of her iced tea. Liz was smiling lazily at her, her clear blue eyes focused on Maka – or rather, at one specific point on the girl. Maka sighed inwardly.

"Oh, come on, girl. Don't be coy. I know what that –" She pointed with one perfectly manicured nail at the juncture of Maka's shoulder and neck, "-is." Her eyes took on a wicked gleam. "Have you been busy?" Out of the corner of her eye, Maka could see that Tsubaki had put down her drink and was watching the both of them, just as curious, even if she pretended not to be. If what she'd heard about the goings on in the Book of Eibon were any indication, Tsubaki might be the most interested of them all in this conversation.

"You know Liz, not everything has to do with boys." Patti giggled at that, though whether in agreement or mockery, Maka honestly couldn't say. Not that it mattered anyway. Liz would see what she wanted to see, whether it was correct or not, and Patti would always be Patti. She sighed. Judging by the looks on her friends' faces, she wasn't going to get any assistance with this. She was all on her own with Liz's predatory interrogation.

The taller blonde rolled her eyes. "Uh huh. You're totally avoiding the point, Maka." Her mouth curled into a twisted smile that would have made lesser women shiver in fright. "Besides, I didn't say anything about boys."

Now it was Maka's turn to shoot her friend a sceptical look. Liz? Not talk about boys? As if. Black Star had a better chance of winning the Miss Universe swimsuit competition. Maka shook her head, letting her one pigtail sweep over the offending spot. Liz's eyes narrowed. Maka shrugged.

"So who was it?" Liz was like a dog on a meaty piece of bone – she wasn't going to be dropping the subject anytime soon. "Soul?"

Maka snorted. "Mr. Cool? You do realize that this is the same guy who makes making fun of my breasts a part of his weekly routine."

"Huh." Liz's eyebrows shot up. "I always thought he'd be the one –" At the dangerous look Maka shot her, she moved on. "Well then, Kirikou?"

"Kirikou?" Maka's straw fell from her mouth. "Where'd you pull that one?"

Patti giggled. "Maka's oblivious, sis!"

Liz held a hand to her forehead, shaking her head. "Totally. You're just as bad as your partner."

Great. Now she was confused as well as insulted. She looked to Tsubaki. "Can you please make sense out of all this?" She rolled her eyes. "I can't decipher anything in all the melodrama."

The Japanese girl made a delicate sound of surprise. "But Liz is telling the truth. Kirikou does like you." She chewed on her lip, as though debating whether or not to say more. She looked at her best friend and shrugged. "He told Black Star when he came over to play video games."

"And it's so totally obvious anyway," Liz drawled, picking up her drink. "It's just that you're so oblivious. Such a shame." Liz made a tsking noise. "You've got all these guys running after you and you can't figure it out." She played with a strand of hair. Maka gaped. She flicked a glance to Patti, who was now sneaking fries off her sister's plate, to Tsubaki, who was watching her with a painfully earnest expression on her face. There was no deception on any of their faces, no signs they were pulling her leg. She grimaced. "I suppose you'll be telling me next that Ox has a thing for me."

"Nope." Liz shook her head, Patti giggling raucously once more. The younger of the sisters piped up, "We all know he's hot for Kim! Smoochy smoochy!" She made a disturbingly good impression of an octopus latching like a barnacle onto the side of a ship, her full lips making squeaky kissing noises. Maka swallowed the down bile she could taste at the back of her throat. Gross. It wasn't that she hated Ox, but the thought of him in a situation even remotely romantic turned her stomach. She reached blindly for her latte and took a deep, steadying pull. Patti noticed the greenness in Maka's expression and laughed harder. Liz patted her on the back.

"Who else is there?" This from Tsubaki, who was stirring the contents of her tea with her straw. Maka's mind reeled. There were more of them? Where was this veritable platoon of men hiding? For Death's sake, it was Soul that got all the fan letters and creepy stalkers. She didn't even have a single admirer; rather, she had to deal with Soul's legion of fangirls glaring at her and staring cow-eyed at him as they went by in the halls. Her grip on her cup tightened.

Liz started ticking names off on her fingers. "There's that freshman in the class below ours. Syke, I think his name was...? There's a few upperclassmen from Class Waxing Moon." She continued to rattle off names, about a dozen in all. Maka wasn't sure she would ever get her jaw off the floor again.

"But that can't be right!" she blurted out at the ludicrous thought of all these secret admirers. The others stared at her wide-eyed. Maka flushed. "It's not me that gets that kind of attention! I don't get fan letters. I don't have admirers following me around like lost puppies. That's not me." She shook her head vehemently. "It's all Soul. It's always been him. Why would anyone start paying attention to me now?"

After all, she thought bitterly, she was the flat chested, fat ankled, violent bookworm with man issues. She didn't attract male attention, she frightened them away. This was what it meant to be Maka Albarn. And she was good with that. She'd been good with that for ages. Romance hadn't been a leading factor in her life ever, and her hopes for a happy ending had long ago been dashed when her family had self-destructed.

It was Tsubaki that spoke up first. "Maybe that's something you should ask Soul about."

Huh? What did that even mean? Maka goggled at her, but it looked as thoughTsubaki had said everything she was going to say, for she went back to her drink, looking sympathetically at her friend. Eventually they split up, and Maka was left to ponder on her friends' words as she made her way home.

Soul was already home when she got to their shared apartment. The smell of basil and tomatoes wafted through the house and Maka breathed deeply in appreciation. "I'm home!" she called out, locking the door behind her. Kicking off her shoes, she entered, following her nose into the kitchen. Soul turned around briefly, giving her the slightest of nods before turning back to his work. Maka sidled over to the counter. "What are you making?"

"Pasta with garlic bread," he answered, hands never stopping as he ground some basil with the flat side of the kitchen knife. He gestured with a cock of his head to a pan of garlic bread sitting on the edge of the counter. "Could you put those in the oven for me? I've got my hands full at the moment." She wordlessly did as he asked, setting the timer on the oven and closing the door. Her eyes followed her partner's skilled movements. He had always been the better cook of the two of them, and it had been he who had showed her the basics of the kitchen when they'd first moved in together. Idly, she wondered where he'd learned to cook. Wasn't he supposed to be some kind of pampered rich boy? Her eyes followed his skilled hands, watching the cords of muscle flex in his arms as he stirred a pot of sauce on the stove. She didn't even realize she'd been staring until Soul's voice cut through her musings.

"It'll be ready in time for dinner." She snapped her head up, startled. He glanced at her, his features amused. "Tell your stomach to hang in there just a little while longer."

Oh. He thought she'd been staring at the food. Maka shook her head. "Yeah. Sorry. I guess I was hungrier than I thought. Do you need any help?"

"Nah, I got it. Go get changed or something. I'll be done soon." He gave her a crooked grin. Maka's stomach fluttered. Maybe she really was much hungrier than she'd imagined. She had thought that the latte would have tided her over, but maybe that wasn't the case.

As she undressed, she thought back to her conversation with the girls. Her eyes strayed to the blemish on her neck. When she really looked at it, it did kind of resemble a love bite. She fingered the patch of skin delicately. She laughed, shaking her head at their folly. What Liz and the others chose to misinterpret was their own business, but the thought sobered her a little.

She was 15 now, going on 16 in the next year. She'd been through much more than the average 15 year old would, but in some aspects, she had less of a clue than the average teenager. She wondered if she would always be stuck in that position. She shook her head. No. It didn't matter. It couldn't matter, so long as she had bigger, more urgent fish to fry.

Try as she might to tell herself this, she couldn't shake Tsubaki's parting words from her head. And she started to wonder just why she was so caught up in so much nothing. And what did Soul have to do with any of this?

* * *

Whatever brief reprieve they'd gotten from the heat yesterday was gone by mid-morning the next day, and many students were spending their break times indoors. Right now they were between lectures and the members of class Crescent Moon were scattered about the classroom, gathering in small groups to talk with their friends. Soul, Black Star and Kid were gathered off to the side of a row of desks. Soul was sitting, leaning back in his seat, laughing at something Black Star had just said. The aforementioned boy was standing on top of the desks, roaring with laughter. Kid merely watched the two, occasionally adding some commentary.

Maka was by herself for the moment. Tsubaki had gone to use the bathroom and Liz had gone with her, saying something about needing to touch up. Patti was at the front of the room drawing an oversized chimera of an alligator and giraffe on the blackboard.

What did Soul have to do with her admirers? She still didn't get it. And try as she might to find anything peculiar in his behaviour, he was the same Soul she'd always known. If anything, her staring seemed to have caught his attention. He took her aside just as they were leaving their next class to get lunch.

"Do I have something on my face?" Soul asked lowly, leaning down to stare into her eyes. Maka flushed.

"No. Why would you think that?" Now that she thought about it when had he gotten so tall? There was a time not so long ago when they'd been equal in height. Since when did he have to crouch down to be at eye level with her? A part of her huffed up at the thought. "I was just thinking of a new training regimen for us, that's all."

Soul raised his eyebrows. "A new training regimen?" His brows furrowed together. "Don't we have enough to do with what we've already been assigned?" He pursed his lips. A shiver ran down Maka's spine.

"Oh, well I mean..." She grasped onto her old friend, righteous indignation. "If you're going to be _lazy_ about it..."

That was the right chord to hit. Soul rolled his eyes. "Whatever, Maka. So what's this new program?" He shoved his hands into his pockets and looked at her expectantly.

"Uh..." She honestly hadn't thought that far ahead. "Flight training!" she fairly shouted, naming the first thing that popped into her mind. She fisted her clammy hands together. That would suffice, right? After all, that had been a large part of their Spartoi training of late. "I want to do some extra flight practice!" She hoped that would be enough.

For some moments Soul didn't say a thing. He eyed her, as though he would see through her and find the lie beneath her chipper exterior. Then he shrugged once more. Maka blew out a slow breath. "Yeah, whatever. Let me know when you want to practice, 'kay?" He started walking again. "Come on. Let's get some grub. I'm starved!" She followed behind him, sighing. She had to be more careful. Soul would start getting the wrong idea if he caught her at it again. Her heart thumped at that. She stomped on the part of her brain that asked if Soul getting the wrong idea would really be such a bad thing.

She didn't really notice anything until almost a week after this incident. She was in the library studying, and an underclassman shuffled to her table, nervously asking if she could help with some Resonance Theory homework his class had been given. Maka was all too happy to oblige.

"Actually, I've been reading this textbook as review the past week," Maka chirped happily. "I still think I have my lecture notes from last year in my locker. I could get them for you if you like." She slid out of her chair, making her way briskly out of the library. It was a good thing she'd brought those old notes with her. _See? Reviewing does have its rewards_, she thought smugly.

She turned the corner to the corridor where Class Crescent Moon's bank of lockers were located – and whipped back around the corner.

Soul. He was crouched down on the ground in front of her locker. She couldn't make out exactly what he was doing, but she saw him stand up, shutting the door of her locker as he did. He walked over to a trash can located between lockers and dumped some papers inside. Then, sticking his hands in his pockets, he wandered off.

When she was sure he was long gone from the corridor, she came out. Slowly, she approached her locker. Bending down, she twirled the combination lock and peered inside. Everything looked as it had in the morning, all her books and notebooks were neatly lined between the two skull-marked bookends she'd bought. She reached for a faded red notebook. Closing the locker door, she stood up slowly, her eyes wandering to the trash bin. She took one step. And then another. She peered into it.

There were a few papers, some loose leaf, others folded. Some came in envelopes. Curious, she picked one out of the trash and unfolded it. Her eyes widened.

* * *

"How long have you known?"

Poor Tsubaki. The girl probably hadn't seen this coming, if her wide midnight blue eyes and gaping mouth were any indication. But Maka was in no mood to be merciful. She shook the wad of letters in the older girl's face. "Just how long has Soul been intercepting these letters?" She breathed carefully through her nose to prevent herself from losing her temper. And here she'd spent the entire time thinking that Soul was the only one getting any fan letters or partner requests. She fumed. What right did he have -?

"Maka-chan..." Tsubaki's voice cut through her fuming line of thought. The other girl sighed when she saw her friend wasn't going to back off or calm down until she got some answers. "Let's go outside and talk about this."

They ended up on a bench outside the school, near the training parklands. Maka waited for Tsubaki to say something. She knew that if she opened her mouth, the other girl wouldn't get a chance to explain what she knew. She shifted in her seat, looking at the crumpled letters still clutched in her hands.

"Do you remember telling me about when you and Soul first partnered up?"

Maka raised her eyebrows. She had told Tsubaki about it, yes. About how she'd been unable to mesh with anyone; about how all anybody seemed to care about was her 'pedigree' – her super meister mother and Death Scythe father. About how Soul had been different. He hadn't cared about her status.

"Yeah," she said at last.

Tsubaki shrugged. "I heard it from Black Star, but he said that you used to get a lot of requests from people to be partners, especially in the first few weeks."

Maka nodded. Most Shibusen students came to the school before the official start of term. This gave them time to get used to their new surroundings and maybe find a partner they could resonate with. Maka herself had been no stranger to Shibusen, as she'd been able to come and go as she pleased long before she enrolled, but she clearly recalled the first time she'd come to the institution as an enrolled student. It was as though they thought she couldn't hear them, they way they spoke about her. At the time it had made her fume. There were those who thought they could gain instant fame and popularity by pairing with the daughter of Shibusen's most famous duo. There were still others who saw her as the quickest way to becoming a Death Scythe. And then there had been the jealous ones who whispered amongst each other, saying that she was only there because of her parents. What it had boiled down to for Maka at the time was that none of them were really looking at _her_. All they saw was an image that had been built up around her; all they saw was their own benefit.

She looked up. "Are you saying Soul wanted to protect me from people with less than sincere intentions?" There was a small part of her gut that clenched uncomfortably at the thought. Soul took his duties as a protector seriously. She supposed when it really came down to it, there wasn't anything surprising in what he was doing, but something else niggled at the back of her mind. Why all the secrecy?

Tsubaki shifted. "Well, that's certainly part of it." She gave Maka a look the girl couldn't decipher. "Maybe you should talk to him about it." She nodded gently at the letters in Maka's hands. "It's the only way you'll get a complete answer."

The rest of the day went by in a blur. Maka blinked at the sky, which was turning into soft shades of orange and pink with light streaks of purple at the edges. Maka sighed softly. She still had no idea what she was going to say to Soul. Her anger with him for intercepting her letters had been waylaid by Tsubaki's words. Now she just wanted answers, but every time she thought to ask him, she'd get tongue tied, or else something would come along to ruin the moment. She grimaced. When had she become such a coward?

"Hey Maka, you coming?" She jerked her head up, startled. Soul was leaning against his bike, hands in his pockets. That weird feeling in her stomach manifested itself once more, and Maka had to swallow thickly to keep what she'd eaten down where it belonged. Ugh. She knew she was stressed about talking to him about this, but for the love of Lord Death, this was ridiculous. She nodded at him, trying to put as normal a smile as she could on her face. "Yeah, I'm coming. Wait up!" She hopped down the stairs, coming to a stop in front of her partner. He looked at her, his mouth pressed into a concerned line.

"You okay, Maka? You look like you're ready to drop dead or something." Hereached out and touched her forehead. "Idiot. If you're coming down with something, you should tell me." When Maka didn't say anything, he rolled his eyes. "Whatever. At least we don't have any missions coming up, and tomorrow's Saturday." He pushed himself off of his bike, making to get on. "Come on. I'll make you some soup or something and then you're going to sleep."

Maka made a noise in the back of her throat. "But it's my turn to co-" But Soul cut her off.

"Uh huh. You can make it up next time. You've been really out of it the whole day. I don't think you've even taken a single note in any of our classes." Maka gasped, ripping open the flap on her messenger bag. When she saw that he was right, she flushed to the roots of her hair. "See what I mean?" he said. "It's got to be pretty bad if you don't pay attention in class." His mouth quirked up. "We've got a test on Monday too."

"No..." Maka held her head in her hands. Good gods, she really was far gone. How could she have let herself get so carried away as to miss something so important? But Soul only laughed. "Relax, Maka." He gave a careless wave of his hand. "I took notes. You can use those."

She gaped at him. "You did?"

"Always the look of surprise," he said sardonically, giving her an eye roll. "Come on. Get on." He waited for her to slide on behind him. She wound her arms gingerly around his waist. She bit her lip to contain the slight flush she could feel blooming on her cheeks as she settled onto the bike. Damn Tsubaki. It was her fault for putting strange ideas into her head. She squeezed her eyes shut and tried to tell herself the treacherous thumps in her chest had to do with the speed Soul was going at.

When they arrived at their apartment, she practically leapt off the bike, earning her yet another curious glance from her partner. She spun around on her heel, marching ahead of him before he could see her blush. Damn it, what the hell was wrong with her?

Soul seemed to be thinking the same thing, for he caught up with her not too long after, grabbing her arm on the stairs. "Maka, what's going on?"

"Nothing's going on," she said, keeping her voice as steady as she could. "I'm just tired, that's all." But his grip on her arm didn't loosen. "Bull," he called evenly. "I think I know when my meister's genuinely sick and when she's trying to hide something."

His words stung her and she whipped her arm furiously from her grasp. His eyes widened in surprise, but she was in no mood to take into account his feelings or her behaviour at the moment. How dare he be so presumptuous? He knew her? He knew her so well that he took actions independent of her, because he _presumed _she would be pleased? Who the hell did he think he was?

She glared venomously at him. "If you know me so well, Soul, then you would know that I don't like being kept in the dark."

His brows knit together in confusion, which only added to her anger. "Maka, what are you talking about?" He was looking at her as if she'd succumbed to Asura's madness and would rip off his head with her bare hands at any moment, a thought which was not entirely unjustified. Maka dug around in her bag. She whipped out a crumpled letter at him.

"Were you ever going to tell me about these?" Soul moved her hand from his face, taking the letter. She watched his face blanch when he saw what it was. He opened his mouth. "Maka –"

"After everything we've been through together –" She swallowed down the lump that was growing larger in her throat. "After everything…" She took a steadying breath. "Why?" she asked at last, glad that her voice was steadier. "Why didn't you tell me? Why did you do this? Why?"

She waited. She looked up at him, trying to read his expression, but he remained as inscrutable as ever. The only sign he gave that he was giving her questions any thought was the turmoil in his eyes. Her breath hitched in her throat when he opened his mouth.

"I'm sorry," he began. Maka made to retort, but he shook his head, silently telling her to wait. "I shouldn't have kept the truth from you." He lowered his head so that his eyes were hidden behind his bangs. "But Maka… before I answer your question, there's something I want to ask you." He gripped her shoulders. "And it's important that you answer with the truth. Can you promise me that, Maka?"

Maka's eyes widened. What was he on about? And why the hell was he turning this around on her?_ She_ wanted the truth from _him_. The look in his eyes stopped her. He was dead serious. Whatever he wanted to ask her, she knew that she'd have to answer him or they wouldn't get any further. Swallowing her resentment, she nodded. This didn't seem to relieve Soul, though; if anything, his shoulders grew stiffer, and he sighed, as though hoping this reckoning would never have had to come.

He drew in a breath. "What am I to you, Maka?" He kept his eyes closed, his breath coming in a slow, steady stream of air that hit her collarbones.

Huh? Her anger dissipated a little at the question. Her heart started hammering in her chest once more. Her head began to spin. She tried to move back, to get a little space to think but Soul's grip on her shoulders was unyielding. Why was he asking her this? They were partners, right? Friends? Comrades? What did he want? "Soul, I don't understand –"

"Just answer the question, Maka." He didn't sound anything other than patient. It was as though he was settling himself in for an eternity to wait for her answer. She tried once more to get some space, but Soul wouldn't let her go.

"Soul," she tried. "Can you back up a bit?"

He didn't answer, at least not verbally. His fingers twitched on her shoulders, his fingers digging a little deeper. Maka winced. "Soul, please –"

"Answer the question, Maka."

She wanted to run. Her heart was fluttering, panicked, like a hummingbird caught in a cage. Her mouth was so very dry; she tried to swallow, but found she couldn't. What did he want her to say? Why did it feel as though if she gave him the wrong answer, she would lose something important? Soul had told her to answer truthfully but she felt as if this was one of the trick questions Stein was so fond of sneaking into his tests. If she didn't think this through carefully there would be consequences, but she couldn't think damn it, when he was so near. She gulped.

"We're… partners, aren't we?" She hated how she sounded so unsure. She licked her lips. "I mean, we're friends." She hated how she had to admit her weakness. "Soul, I'm not sure what you're trying to ask."

The boy in question paused. "We're partners… friends." He swallowed. She watched his Adam's apple bob. "Is that it?"

She opened her eyes. "What do you mean?" she whispered. She was trembling now. She could feel her teeth chattering, her stomach knotting. She wondered if she wasn't going to throw up.

"Is that all I am to you?" He paused. "Is that all I'm ever going to be to you?"

A part of her knew that he was asking for something in between the lines. An even smaller part of her knew exactly what he was trying to aim for. But the bigger part of her – the biggest, more cowardly and self-preserving part of her that knew the pain of misplaced faith drew closed around her heart, and she couldn't for the life of her find a way out of this that could salvage this situation. Salvage them.

When she didn't answer, Soul stepped back, head bowed. "I'm sorry, Maka." She couldn't see his face, but his voice was flat, as though he was trying to keep down his disappointment. He sighed, running a hand through his hair, looking up at the next stairwell. "So you wanted answers, huh."

She nodded mutely. She watched as his shoulders slowly straightened, as he looked her in the eyes once more. She nearly gasped at the pain in his expression. He gave her a wan smile that looked nothing like his confident, cocky smirk.

"I did it to protect you," Soul said. He shoved his hands in his pockets. "As your weapon."

She blinked. Something was off. He was lying to her. She swallowed for what felt like the thousandth time. "Th – That's all?"

"Yeah. That's all." He shrugged his shoulders. "That's all."

There was a pause between them. Soul was the first one to move. "Come on. I need to get started on dinner." He started up the stairs, head bowed, shoulders hunched. Maka watched him go.

What had that been all about? And why did she feel as though she'd made a terrible mistake?

* * *

_To be continued...?_

_Author's Notes: _I put a question mark there because I don't know whether to let this stand alone or write a sequel to it. I'll let you decide. :) What say you, readers?


	14. Chapter 14

**A Maka for All Seasons**

**By DarkAngel**

_Disclaimer: _I don't own Soul Eater.

_Author's Notes: _This is the sequel to the last chapter. Thank you to everyone who commented saying they wanted to see a sequel. :D I hope this is to your liking.

* * *

**[19. Uncomfortable]**

To say things were awkward between them would have been like saying Black Star's ego was overlarge, or that Kid had a little symmetry related problem: the most grandiose of understatements. Maka, to put it in plain terms, felt like shit. Never had she had to sit through such an awkward dinner; never had she woken up several times from her fitful sleep in a sweaty terror; never had she felt less motivated to do anything other than stay in her bed and pray that she could pass the whole weekend away here, unnoticed.

Rubbing blearily at one sleep encrusted eye, she looked from the digital numbers on her alarm clock to the shafts of sunlight beaming through her window. Ugh. She'd overslept. Her original plan had been to wake up early and make breakfast, go jogging, and then settle in for an afternoon of studying. It was now close to lunchtime. She closed her eyes again with a defeated groan.

She knew that sooner or later, she would have to leave her bed and face the world outside her bedroom. Sooner or later, she would have to come face to face with Soul once more. Her heart thudded dully. She squeezed her eyes together, her fingers curled tightly into the comforter. Soul. He was always so good at hiding his emotions, so good at keeping things under the surface. Over the years of their partnership, Maka was proud of the fact that she'd slowly deciphered almost all the minute facial tics and shades in his eyes so that she could read him almost as well as one of her beloved books. But last night had been different. It had been as if a shutter had gone over his eyes, and aside from the brief flash of pain that evening, he'd displayed nothing but a blank slate; something she couldn't even begin to decipher, much less read.

Checking the clock again, Maka frowned. A whopping two minutes had passed since the last time she'd set eyes on it. She sighed. Courage. It was what she was noted for. Courage would get her through the day, through the weekend. Slowly, she sat up. Her head felt as though cottons balls had been packed in there, her mouth felt disgustingly sandpapery. She rubbed at her head. Standing up, she made her way to her bedroom door, stopping at it, resting her head against the cool wood. There were no sounds of life out there. Was Soul in his own room, sleeping? Biting her lip, she turned the knob.

A blur of dark fur shot into the room, making Maka stumble back in surprise. The dark bundle hopped lightly onto her bed and peered at her with curious golden eyes. "Blair," Maka whispered, holding a hand to her chest. "You startled me."

The cat twitched an ear at her. "I'm sorry Maka. I was just coming to tell you breakfast was ready, but you opened the door." She looked at Maka in concern. "Are you all right? You look like you're under the weather."

Maka made a hoarse sound that barely passed for a laugh. "I'm not sick."

"Hm." The magical cat bounded off the bed and blurred into her human form. "That's good." Blair bent down so that her oversized breasts were in Maka's face. She lifted a manicured hand up to touch Maka's forehead and made a small grimace. "But you're covered in sweat and you really do look pale. Did something happen?"

It took everything to keep her lip from trembling at that. The only thing that kept her from going over the proverbial edge was the years of ingrained endurance. She was not weak; she would not crumble so easily. "I'm fine Blair," she said, proud at the way her voice came out – steady and strong. "I just had a rough night, that's all."

"Oh." Blair's ears twitched downwards. Then she perked right up again. "Well, breakfast will make you feel better! I made a toasted fish sandwich! I even made scrambled eggs!" Maka's stomach lurched unpleasantly. "Thanks Blair," she managed. She hesitated. "Is Soul up already?"

"Soul?" Blair tipped her head to the side. "He left a note saying he was going out for a while. He said he'd be back later."

"Oh." Maka looked down. She didn't know whether to feel relieved or aggrieved. She tugged at a pigtail that had come loose in her sleep; she'd been so out of it she hadn't loosened her hair when she'd gone to bed last night. Stepping out of her bedroom, Blair behind her, she made her way into the kitchen. Her nose wrinkled at the smell of slightly burned fish and eggs. Her eyes flicked from the burned mess on the kitchen table, to the ingredients littering the countertop and stove. She sighed inwardly. "You know, Blair, come to think of it I'm not so hungry. You can eat the rest. More for you, right?"

The cat woman looked at her in concern. "Are you sure, Maka? You're a growing girl and all..."

"I'll be fine." She shot the feline a look that she hoped was convincing. "I'll just get myself a bowl of cereal or something. Thanks, though."

"Oh." Blair's ears flattened on her head, but she perked right up again. "Okay! Blair shall make lunch too, when Maka feels hungrier!"

Maka smiled weakly at her feline roommate. "Um... that's all right, Blair. There was something I had in mind for lunch today, anyway." Something that didn't involve burnt fish, but Blair didn't need to know that. "Just be sure to clean up the kitchen when you're done, okay?"

"Leave it to Bu-tan! I clean this all up in two shakes with my kitty magic!" Blair made a swipe with a closed fist, like a cat batting its paw at her. Maka smiled faintly.

Now what to do? There was that test coming up on Monday, but she honestly couldn't say that she would be able to concentrate on studying now. She bit her lip. Besides, she hadn't taken any notes. Soul had said he'd taken them in her place, but... Her eyes wandered to his room. He wasn't home. She could just slip in, take what she needed, and get out. She swallowed thickly. The events from last night flashed through her mind.

_ "We're partners... friends."_

_ "Is that it?"_

_ "Is that all I'm ever going to be to you?"_

_ "I did it to protect you."_

_ "As your weapon."_

_"That's all."_

No. Maka squeezed her eyes shut, digging the heels of her palms into her eyes. No. It wasn't supposed to be like this. They'd always been partners, nearly always been friends. She didn't want any of that to change. She hadn't thought it ever would. But the hurt in Soul's eyes had told her loud and clear that she had been the only one thinking like that. From what she gathered of her friends, they'd been seeing what Soul had been seeing. How long had this been going on?

She stumbled to Soul's room. Shoving open the door with her shoulder, she looked around for his bag. Spotting it by his bed, she nearly dove for it. She found his notebook easily enough and flipped through it. He really had taken notes. They were all there, in his untidy scrawl. She felt a lump burning its way up her throat.

_"Always the look of surprise."_

She really had underestimated him. All along, she'd thought she knew him better than anyone else, but when it came down to it, she hardly knew anything about him at all.

* * *

Soul still hadn't come home by the time lunch rolled around. Maka's attempts at studying had been near futile. She would stare at Soul's notes and all she could think of was him. It was stupid. The way he slanted the crossbar over his letter ts shouldn't have made her recollect the way he would stay close by her at school; or the way he would laugh when something struck him as funny, his normally low voice taking on a more childish pitch. Seeing his heavy penmanship shouldn't have dragged her thoughts to the way he would always make her hot chocolate just the way she liked it; or how he would catch her sleeping on the couch and when she'd wake up, there would be a blanket wrapped around her and a pillow placed under her head.

The worst of this whole ordeal was, she had no idea how to deal with any of it. She wasn't used to being indecisive: if a problem arose, she found a way to work around it or else knock it clear into next Tuesday.

Soul had put his cards on the table. Well, sort of. She was more than 90% sure of how he felt about her, but the question was, how did she feel about him? Oh, they were partners, of course. Friends, yes. But could she possibly mean more to him than that? She shuddered. This was how Mama and her stupid Papa had started out. Just like this. _And look at them now_, Maka thought bitterly. Her mother was Death only knew where, and her father was still working his way through all of Death City's eligible (and then some) women.

She slammed the notebook shut. Forget it. This wasn't going anywhere. Grabbing what she needed, she yelled to Blair that she would be out for a walk and bolted out of the house, the door slamming loudly behind her.

* * *

Tsubaki was looking at Maka with something between sympathy and pity in her eyes. Maka bit down hard on her tongue; the last thing she wanted to do was snap at her best girl friend, especially when she was the only one she could talk to about this. She sighed, running her finger over the steaming mug of tea Tsubaki had made her. She looked around. "Where's Black Star?"

"He went out with Soul-kun. I think they're at Kid-kun's house right now." Maka nodded at this information. So that's where Soul was. She took a sip of the black tea, letting it warm her.

"You spoke to Soul-kun last night," Tsubaki started. Maka gave a tiny nod. "I assume it didn't go well?"

"No." Maka laughed, feeling hollow. "It didn't go well." She sighed for what felt like the hundredth time. "And now he's avoiding me. I don't know how we're ever going to resonate again." It wasn't a joke. She'd heard of couples who'd broken up and ended up not being able to resonate together after it was all said and done with. _And the stupid thing about all this is we're not even a couple_. She didn't think she'd felt this low in a long time. This was worse than when they'd found out Soul had consumed a cat's soul. Or when Medusa had betrayed them. Or... Well, point being, it was pretty bad, and she didn't see the situation getting better anytime soon.

As if reading her thoughts, Tsubaki touched her arm. "He'll come back, Maka-chan. And then you can work through it together. You're too strong together to be apart for long."

If only it were that simple. Maka was on the verge of telling Tsubaki just that, but didn't want to dim the hopeful look in the other girl's eyes and merely nodded. After some silence, Tsubaki spoke up again. "Maka-chan?"

"Mm?"

Tsubaki paused, biting on her lip, her eyes clouded. She looked as though she were trying to find the best way to say something. "Do... do you know how you feel about Soul?" She flushed upon getting the blunt end of Maka's hollow eyed stare. "I mean, it's pretty obvious he cares about you, and not just as a partner. I was wondering if you felt the same." She fidgeted with her fingers. Maka shook her head, sighing.

"That's what everybody wants to know, huh?" She slumped down so her face was on her knees. "That's what I want to know."

"You mean...?" Maka shook her head. Tsubaki tried another tack. "Okay, let's try it this way. I'm going to ask you some questions, and I want you to answer as honestly as possible. Is that all right?"

She sounded like Soul had last night, but Maka nodded. Anything was better than the limbo she was currently in.

"If Soul were to take up the offers he gets, how would you feel?"

"What?" Maka burst out, clutching the tea cup in a death grip. "He wouldn't. He has zero interest in those girls anyway." She could feel something nasty and bitter coil in her chest. She held a hand to it, rubbing at the burning ache that had suddenly flared there. Taking a vigorous swig of her tea to cool the sensations, she glared down at the table.

"It's just a scenario," Tsubaki said calmly. "I know Soul-kun won't take up any of those offers. And I think you know why." Before Maka had a chance to retort, Tsubaki threw another situation at her. "Soul-kun's pretty popular. He's been rejecting offers from other girls – partnership requests, offers to dance at the annual ball..." Tsubaki set down her tea cup and tapped a finger idly against the surface of the low table. "He's refusing them all now, but even as loyal as he is, he can only wait so long. Eventually, he'll realize that you won't reciprocate his feelings, and he'll move on. How do you think you'll feel when he's suddenly not at the apartment on Friday night because he's out on a date? Or if you hear him talking on the phone with his girlfriend? Or –"

"Stop!" She couldn't take it anymore. The more Tsubaki spoke, the more real those scenarios became in her head. And who was she to stop Soul from pursuing those things? He deserved happiness, and he wasn't in any way bound to her outside of their partnership and friendship. Friendship. The word left a bitter taste in her mouth. "What do you want me to do about it?" She suddenly felt sick. "I don't want to lose what we have, Tsubaki." But she didn't want to lose _him_. But she probably would, as Tsubaki was saying, if she couldn't make her choice in time. When had she become so greedy?

She felt a hand on her shoulder. "I can't help you find the answers you need, Maka-chan. But whatever happens with you and Soul, you know we'll all back you up."

And that was it, really. The ball was in her court. It was just too bad ball games had never been her forte.

* * *

By the time she got back from Tsubaki and Black Star's home, Soul had returned. She immediately stamped on the urge to turn right back around and closed the door behind her. "I'm home," she called out. Good. She sounded normal, not the slightest hint of a waver or hesitation in her voice.

But she got no response. Stepping warily into the apartment, she found he'd dumped his stuff on the couch in the living room but there was no sign of her white haired partner anywhere. She checked the bathroom and found no trace of him there. She glanced at his bedroom door. It was closed. So he was in there then. Maka paused in front of the door. She wanted to talk to him, to relieve them both of this awkwardness, but she had no idea where to begin. What could she possibly say to him to bring things back to normal?

She turned around, just about to go to her room when the door behind her opened. She turned back around, frozen to the spot. "Soul..."

He looked surprised for a brief moment before his became inscrutable once more. He nodded at her. "Maka."

They stood in an uncomfortable silence for some moments. Then Soul brushed past her. There was a faint hint of shower gel and shampoo that wafted to her nostrils as he passed by. She gulped. "How was the game?" she blurted out. Immediately, she felt the urge to punch herself in the face. How lame could she possibly be?

He stopped in mid-stride and turned around. "...it was all right," he said after a while. He gave her an appraising look, as though to see what it was she truly wanted from him. He shrugged. "Black Star had all our asses beat from the start."

A wave of relief crashed through Maka. She could handle this. "Sounds like Black Star." She rolled her eyes. "He doesn't know when to let up."

"Yeah..." Normally Soul would have chuckled. They'd have joked around a little more, talked some nonsense and hung out together. But things were different now, Maka was realizing with a wave of sadness. She couldn't just joke around with him and continue to act normally.

Soul sighed, sticking his hands deep in his pockets. "Look, Maka. About last night –" Soul shook his head. "Sorry I freaked you out. I lost control there. So uncool."

She could have smiled at his reiteration of the cool he worked so hard to keep. She shook her head at him. "No, it's all right. I'm sorry too." The tightness that had taken up residence in her chest was slowly uncoiling, letting her breathe easy once more. "And..." She paused, wondering if she should say it. There was that line between them. It had been crossed once, and they couldn't erase that fact. "Thank you, Soul. For always being there for me."

He chuckled. "We good then?"

"Yeah." She was so relieved she could have hugged him, but she stopped herself just in time. They'd just cleared things up between them – no need to go complicating things further with unnecessary contact.

They spent the rest of the day at their respective activities, and as evening rolled around, Maka went to sleep happy. They had gotten over this. She was stupid to worry that something like this could break their partnership.

* * *

As the week went on, she realized that she was wrong. It was so subtle she didn't even notice right at first.

For one thing, he no longer sat near her. Oh, they still sat together in class, and Soul slept or doodled on his notes as he usually did, but it was the distance between them that she noticed. There was a good foot of space between them, as Soul had taken to moving his stool away from her. She was used to the fabric of his jacket brushing against her side, or the way he would sometimes poke her to get her attention before muttering something to her during the lecture. Now he just sat hunched over the desk at a respectable distance. Maka found herself missing his warmth.

Then there was the lunch period. It used to be that that they would hang out together after eating; he'd even come with her to the library once in a blue moon "just to kill time". Now he was constantly with Black Star or Kid or else by himself somewhere. Despite being with Liz, Patti and Tsubaki, she couldn't help but feel an ache in her chest when she realized Soul wasn't there with her.

He no longer screened her locker for letters. She found this one out quickly enough when after the weekend, she came into school and found several notes stuffed into it. She looked through them and found they were much the same as the ones Soul received; she was slightly surprised at the not small number of requests she'd received from girls as well.

But perhaps the worst of all of this was that she could no longer touch him. She never knew how essential touch was to their relationship until now. It was just the little things she'd grown used to every day, so minute that she didn't know they were there until she was deprived of them. Like the way Soul would touch the small of her back or tug on her arm when he was leading her somewhere. Or the way he would sometimes mess up her hair just to tick her off, or give her a playful shove, or high five her when they accomplished something as a team. None of it was there anymore. And it hurt Maka much more than she thought it could or would.

Today was a flight practice day – one that had been mandated for them by the teachers, not the lame excuse Maka had made up the other day. Already Maka could tell this would not go well – the first clue being Soul's reluctance to transform to begin their training.

"What's your deal? It's not like we haven't done this before. How is this any different?" She felt frustrated. The fact that they were being given concerned looks by sweet Marie didn't make things any better.

Soul shuffled, hands stuck deep in his pockets. "It is different," he snapped. "Just because you can remain unaffected, doesn't mean I can." He flicked a brief glance at her tights-clad legs before turning swiftly away. Maka could feel her blood pressure rising.

"Oh come on! It's not even like you can feel –"

He whipped back around again, pinning her with a glare that could have nailed her to the signpost they were standing near.

"You –" Maka whispered, her throat suddenly dry. Her cheeks felt hotter than the Sahara. "You can...?"

Soul looked away again. "I just got good at ignoring it most of the time, I guess." He shrugged, slouching down even further, as if in embarrassment. "So uncool," she heard him mutter. They were silent for some agonizing moments, all three of them: Maka, Soul and Marie. Then Soul let out an explosive sigh. Turning to their teacher, he waved a hand. "Sorry Ms. Marie. I'm going to take a walk." Can we do this some other time?"

Marie looked as though she was going to object, but Maka waved it off. "It's all right, Ms. Marie. We'll practice on our own later." She smiled wanly, though she knew that her smile was far from convincing. "I think we need some time to regroup."

* * *

It came as no surprise then, that they were called into the presence of Lord Death soon after that incident. The god of death was as chipper as ever, though Maka could tell that this was going to be a long meeting, if the low table and three cups of coffee sitting by the mirror were any indication.

"Well hiya heya hoya! What's up, what's shaking?" Death bounced jovially across the platform they were standing on. Oh dear gods. He'd even come out of his mirror. Maka forced back a groan. So Marie really had gone and told Lord Death about the problems they had been having.

Once they were seated – Soul seated a respectable distance beside her and Lord Death across them, he cut to the chase. "Well, well, I do hear from little birdies that there's trouble in paradise." Maka winced. Really, did he have to make it sound so flippant? From out of the corner of her eye, Soul took a calming sip of his beverage, face blank. She wished he could have his composure.

When it was clear her partner wasn't going to speak, Maka stepped up to bat. "It's nothing, Lord Death. We've just been having a..." A what? A lover's spat? A difference of opinion? A falling out? "We've just been going through a rough patch," she finished, somewhat lamely. Soul was still looking at his coffee as if it were the most fascinating thing he'd ever tasted. Maka glared at him. He couldn't help, even just a little? This was as much his problem as it was hers.

"Weeellll," Lord Death said, tipping his chin against his forefinger and thumb, "it's not unusual for partnerships to have their ups and downs. As a matter of fact, it's the natural course of things, and normally I wouldn't interfere." Then he spread his hands apart in a gesture of surrender. "But you see, your friends are so worried about you. And I must admit, I'm a teensy bit concerned too. You two usually get over your fights quickly and the last time you fought like this was that time in London with the werewolf Free."

This time Soul did react. It was minute, but his hands clenched around his cup and set it down on the table carefully, as though afraid he might smash it.

"So in everybody's best interests, I have a proposal," Lord Death chirped on, as though he hadn't noticed a thing. "I'm going to send the two of you on a mission." Both Maka and Soul's heads jerked up. He held up a peremptory finger for silence. "It won't be a hard one. As a matter of fact, it's going to be sooooo much easier than the ones I've been sending you on recently. I just want you to track and hunt a wee little problem we've been having up in Washington state!"

Maka glanced at Soul, and this time, he glanced back. There was something in his eyes she couldn't read, but he only looked at her briefly before turning away again to look at Lord Death. "Are you sure this is a good idea?" Soul said, speaking for the first time. "At this point, I'm not sure we can even resonate." She'd suspected the same thing herself, but for him to put it out there in words made a sharp stab of pain lance through her chest. She stifled a gasp into her coffee cup, taking an extra large chug of the black liquid to keep herself steady.

"It's because I'm worried about the stability of your partnership that I'm sending you on this mission, Soul," Death said, all pretence of light hearted brevity gone. "And as reluctant as I am to do this, I must give you both an ultimatum." Soul gave a hiss at that. Maka tensed.

"I would like you both to find the target and eliminate it. Simple, no? I highly doubt it's beyond either of your abilities to carry out." Death leaned in closer, looking at them both in turn. "If on the other hand you find you are unable to complete this mission..."

They both sat in their seats, frozen. If they couldn't finish the mission...?

"Then I will formally dissolve your partnership."

* * *

It was a miserable night. The threat of the dissolution of their partnership hung over them like a gloomy storm cloud. Maka couldn't even find it in herself to laugh at the fact that tonight's weather perfectly matched her mood: even in the thick blanket of night she could make out the grey clouds gathering together for a downpour. She stood on a rooftop, her Soul Perception stretched out as far as it would go, looking for their target. If they completed this mission successfully, they could stay together. But now that she thought about it, what would become of them even if they did? At the rate they were going, they would naturally drift would be forced to find a new partner, and Soul...

The thought of him finding a new partner made her heart thump painfully, her stomach feel as though it was being rent from seam to seam. She closed her eyes, trying to steady her breathing, to concentrate on the task at hand. Soul was transformed and in her hand, though they weren't resonating. If they had been, her perception would have had a wider reach, but she knew better than to ask it of him right now. Neither of them were in the best of shape all things considered.

And then, faintly, she felt it. Her eyes snapped open. To the south, a disturbance: it was there.

"Have you found it, Maka?" Soul asked. She nodded tersely. "Yeah. We need to move quickly." She was about to tell Soul to transform again so they could fly, but the words died in her throat. They could close the distance to their target in a matter of seconds using Soul's flying mode, but...

She took several steps back. "Maka, what are you -?" Before he had a chance to finish his sentence, she leapt off the edge of the roof onto the next one, taking three more them in quick succession. She hadn't had to do this in a long time – not since before they made Soul into a Death Scythe. She let her perception search out their target again. They were getting closer. Leaping with a flip down onto the pavement, she sprinted for the southeast corner of town, legs pumping hard.

They found it easily enough. Maka suppressed a wave of revulsion at the sight: that it had once been human was clear, but only because of the two arms and legs. Everything else had mutated beyond recognition, leaving behind the creature they faced. Its face was elongated and the jaw had become a maw of drooling hunger. Parts of the flesh were torn apart, revealing oozing wounds and even white bone in some places. Where the skin was undamaged, it was grey and bruised. White eyes stared with desperation at her, and from its ribcage she could hear the rattling gasps of a creature that had lost all sense but for its all-consuming hunger.

"Let's take care of this," Maka muttered. From the scythe Soul gave a grunt of assent.

Her first mistake was in thinking that this was going to be a cut and dry mission. Maka soon discovered just how wrong she was when she slashed at the demonised soul in a way that should have left it incapacitated if not dead, only to find to her rising horror that it just got up as though she hadn't cut it down. It let out a horrible screech, literally holding itself together. Maka then watched in horror as it began to glow. The wound she'd inflicted on it began to heal.

"Wha – no way," she gasped, jumping back to put some distance between the monster and herself. She looked up at Soul. "How are we supposed to beat this thing if it just regenerates?"

"Remember what Lord Death told us? It's not going down without you using your wavelength." He paused, the eye on his scythe closing briefly before looking down at her again. "I think that's why he sent us out here." He laughed hollowly. "He knew that we wouldn't be able to take this thing down without resonating."

"He wants us to force resonance?" Maka shuddered. Just what was Lord Death thinking? He knew as well as she did that it was nothing short of a miracle that she could still hold onto Soul now without any adverse side effects – she could still remember the burns she'd gotten from trying to hold him when they'd had their falling out, or the way he'd grown unimaginably heavy when Black Star tried to pick him up. For her to force resonance with him would undoubtedly leave them both in a state unfit to fight.

"...I don't see that we have much of a choice." Soul's voice was flat, and Maka cringed. Fair enough. They'd fail this mission if they didn't do something, which would either lead to one or both of them wounded or dying, or both of them being separated. It was a rock and hard place they'd been put in, and she didn't see that she could do better than to pick a situation and see where it took them.

"Okay." She blew out a deep breath. "I'm ready if you are."

"Ready as I'll ever be," Soul answered, still maintaining his stoic demeanour despite the odds. Maka had to smile at that.

She concentrated on the feeling of her soul. It was flickering erratically, signalling her panic. Taking a deep breath, she forced herself to calm down. She could hear the monster bearing down on them, but as she concentrated, time seemed to slow. Searching out Soul's wavelength, she concentrated on merging them. She could feel Soul try to do the same.

A spark flared between them and Maka winced as the unpleasant sensation of resistance battered her from all sides. She cried out when a jolt shot straight through her and nearly dropped Soul. She only just managed to get out of the way in time as the demonised soul reached where they'd been. Rolling and leaping away, Maka gasped for breath.

"We can't do it! Soul, I don't think we can do it!" She hated this. She hated feeling so weak, so helpless. Their partnership had been forged of hardship and mutual trust, and this one thing was going to destroy everything they'd built up between them. She could feel tears starting to sting at her eyes.

And now she could feel a heavy resistance in her arms and she realized with dawning dismay that he was getting heavy. Oh gods no. If this kept up, pretty soon she wouldn't be able to wield him at all, and then what? The monster made a swipe at her and she dodged, though her movements were slowed considerably by the heavy scythe in her grip. She cried out as she felt a sharp pain blossoming in her shoulder. "Maka!" Soul yelled. Maka staggered at the combined pain of the blow and Soul's weight.

"God damn it, Maka! Get yourself together!" Soul's voice reverberated in her head. In the background, she could hear the demonised soul's angry roar as it made to attack again. Soul was getting heavier by the second. With a groan, she could feel her fingers beginning to slip from his shaft. The eye on his scythe widened. "Maka!" he yelled again, and she could catch the panic in his voice now, a surer sign than anything that things had gone to hell and beyond.

"Soul..." She stumbled back. The monster aimed a punch and it landed true. With a muted cry, Maka could feel herself flying as Soul slipped from her grasp. She barely registered his cry. Everything felt so far away. Her mind felt as though it was stuffed with cotton; everything was muted, everything was moving sluggishly. She landed on her back, her head bouncing against the pavement. Even that pain was muted. _Is this how it's all going to end? Am I going to die on a mission that I can easily clear under normal circumstances? _

And what of Soul? If she died, he would find himself partnerless, alone. He'd once told her that he'd been afraid of getting close to people once. _The funny thing is, now I'm afraid of being alone. He laughed, showing two neat rows of razor sharp teeth. Totally uncool, huh? _

No. Soul had never been anything but cool, even when he was a drooling idiot who did stupid things to maintain his image or his pride. He'd always been there for her, even when her own father hadn't been around long enough to look after his "precious baby girl". He'd been willing to throw away his cool if it meant giving her the support she (and she had never admitted it) desperately needed. Over the years, he'd become everything to her. _And yet I can't – _

"Maka!" She jolted. Soul. He was shaking her shoulder, the look in his eyes desperate. "Get up, Maka!" He tugged on her hand. "Come on, we need to get out of here!"

"But –" She could feel tears starting to roll down her face. "If we do that, we won't be partners anymore. They'll split us up, Soul!"

"I would rather see you alive from far away than dead in front of me," Soul said grimly. His grip on her hand tightened. "We're getting out of here. Come on."

"No!" she yelled. Soul stared at her, wide eyed. "Don't you care about what happens to us? We won't be partners anymore. We'll have to find other people to pair with. I don't want another partner, I want you!" His eyes widened. "Don't tell me you want to break up?"

They were silent for what seemed like ages. Soul let out a breath. "That isn't fair, Maka," he muttered. "You..." He shook his head. "You really don't get it, do you?" At Maka's blank look, he smiled, the first genuine smile she'd seen from him in what seemed like weeks. "I don't care what Lord Death or anyone else says. I'm not leaving. Whether we pass or fail this mission, I'm not going anywhere."

"Wha-?" Before Maka could finish, Soul yanked her up. They dodged the fist that had come crashing down on them just in time.

"That was too close," Soul muttered. "Come on, Maka. You can run faster than that."

Under normal circumstances she would have chopped him for that. At the very least she would have snapped something back in reply, but now wasn't the time or place for it. Her only reply was to tighten her grip on Soul's hand. Something... something was happening between them. She was on the verge of grasping it. Something very important was happening, and she had the feeling that if she let it go now, it would take a very long time before she would be given the opportunity to look at it again. She tugged on his hand. "Soul, stop."

By now they'd put a fair amount of distance between themselves and the demonised soul, though they could still hear it crashing about as it searched for them. Maka bit her lip. She knew they should deal with it before it started rampaging and hurting the townspeople, but this had to be dealt with now. She tugged on Soul's hand again, getting his attention. "Soul... what you said back there..." She fought down a blush. Her heart was pounding, and not just from the strain of the mission. There it was again: that feeling that she was sinking, there was that fear that dug its claws into her very heart, her very soul every time she thought of crossing that self-prescribed line she'd made between herself and her partner. That same fear she'd sworn she would never give herself the opportunity to feel after watching her father shatter her mother's heart.

_But Soul is different. He would never do that to me. I know him better than anyone. I know Soul isn't going to betray me._ And slowly, very slowly, she began to feel something in her chest thaw.

"We can talk about it later," Soul replied gently. "I haven't been honest with you, and it's hurt us." He stood up, pulling her up with him. "Right now we have a monster to deal with."

"But how can we fight him?" Maka whispered, despair blanketing her again like a dark cloud. "You felt it just as I did – you got heavier. I don't think we can resonate –"

"We can." The strong resolve in his voice made her look up. "We can, and we will." He smiled, that same look he'd given her all those years ago when they'd been forced to fight Stein at his laboratory. "I believe in you." He cupped her cheek in his hand. "I believe in us." He laughed at her burning face. "Never mind. Like I said, we'll talk about it later." He gave her a sharp-toothed, predatory smile. "Now how about we go and kick some monster ass?"

She couldn't help it: his grin was contagious. "Yeah." She could feel herself returning to normal. The fog that had invaded her brain was quickly clearing, her mind focusing on the mission ahead. What had she been so worried about? She glanced at her partner as they ran back to deal with their target. _I was a fool. _She'd been so wrong about so many things. And now she knew exactly what she had to do.

She held out her hand. "Soul!" He transformed like he always did, without her having to say anything more. The comforting weight of his weapon form in her hands gave her courage. The demonised soul was still there, but now it looked weak, powerless in the face of their combined might. She smirked. "I'll be taking your soul."

She swung her scythe down with a great cry. "Witch Hunter!"

* * *

"Well, well, well, this is good news! Great news! I'm so glad you're both back here safe and sound!" Lord Death clapped his overlarge hands excitedly, bouncing back and forth. Maka beamed broadly. "Thank you, Lord Death." She bowed. Soul stood beside her, hands in his pockets. She nudged him and he gave a grudging bow as well.

"I just knew you two would pull through!" he continued, ignoring Soul's rudeness. "After all, you've gone through so much together. It was a pretty foregone conclusion!" At that, Maka's smile faltered. She hadn't thought so herself at the time. She wondered just how much he and the others had seen that she hadn't, because she'd been too blind to see past her own fears and misconceptions.

They finished giving their report and left the Death Room. As they came up to the last guillotine, Maka turned to Soul. "What was that about?"

"What was what about?" Soul raised an eyebrow, his voice bland. Maka pursed her lips. "Don't give me that. You were clearly upset with him."

He snorted. "You should be upset with him too, Maka. He deliberately put us in danger so that he could prove some theory about our relationship right." He shuddered. "He's been hanging out with Stein too long."

"Maybe." Maka tilted her head in thought. "But it worked out in the end, didn't it?"

Soul blew an exasperated breath. "That's not the point –"

"It brought us back together, didn't it?"

Her partner went quiet at that. "Yeah," he said at last. "Yeah, it did." He looked her, his garnet eyes determined. "We should talk."

The atmosphere immediately grew pressurized. "Yeah. I guess we should."

"Let's not do it here." Soul gestured to the door of the Death Room. "I don't want anyone walking in on us."

The walk home was silent. When they'd closed the door to their apartment behind them, Maka sat nervously on the edge of the couch, hands fisted on her lap. "So..."

"Wait, Maka." He held up a hand. "Let me talk first." At Maka's mute nod, he started. "First... I'm sorry for keeping secrets from you." He looked pained. "I know what I did was wrong. I should have let you deal with those letters yourself."

Maka nodded. She kind of understood why Soul had done what he'd done. After all, she didn't like it when he got letters from his fangirls. There had been many a time she'd had to stop herself from ripping the letters out of his hands and setting them on fire. She supposed Soul had felt something similar. "You know I'm not going to find another partner," Maka said, putting a hand on his knee in reassurance. He looked down at her hand, his own reaching out to cover hers.

"I know." His thumb stroked over the skin of her knuckles; she suppressed a shiver. "It's not that I didn't trust you... It's just the thought of someone else being your partner..." He barked out a laugh. "So not cool, right?"

"...I don't know about that." At Soul's raised brows, she clarified. "I felt the exact same way when I saw the letters you'd get too, you know." She recalled trying to deal with it in any way she could, by pretending she didn't see anything, or by teasing Soul about his popularity. She felt a squirm of guilt wriggle in her stomach. There had even been a time or two when she'd lost her temper and stormed off, leaving Soul nursing a bruised head and wondering what had gotten into her.

"You said you wanted to know why I'd take your letters from you." At Maka's nod, he closed his eyes, breathing in deeply. "You don't have to say anything about this if you don't want to. It's not like I'm expecting a positive answer or anything... but I guess you should know." He opened his eyes once more and smiled at her, and she could feel something between them shift. Damn it, she was going to choke for lack of air if he kept looking at her like that. She turned her head away, but Soul stopped her.

"Maka, look at me." Oh gods no. Then he'd see the supernova that was her face. "Maka, please. This is important." Maybe it was the earnestness in Soul's tone, but she turned back to face him, biting down on her bottom lip. He smiled reassuringly, poking at her lip. "Don't do that, either. You'll draw blood." He chuckled. "I should know." She giggled. Soul's shoulders slumped, relaxing. "I figured I wouldn't say anything. I mean, I know your track record with your dad and how you feel about guys in general."

Maka shook her head. No. She may have felt that way long ago when she was a kid and she'd had to watch her family slowly break apart. And of course, there was still a huge part of her that was scared about the same thing happening to her. But Soul had proven to be the exception. Time and again, he'd proven himself. She opened her mouth, but Soul cut her off.

"I don't exactly know when, but I..." Soul flushed. Maka bit the inside of her mouth to keep from giggling. "I care for you. A lot. I mean, I care for you as more than just a meister, and as more than just a friend. I –" He groaned. "Damn it, I'm no good at this. Forget I said anything."

He made to stand up, but Maka grabbed his wrist. His gaze flicked to her, face still flushed. "Maybe I don't want to forget it." At Soul's widening eyes, she turned redder. Ah, great. They were a pair of perfectly ripe tomatoes now. At least they matched. She licked her lips nervously. "Maybe... Maybe I don't want to be afraid anymore. Maybe..." She remembered a line from one of the poetry books she'd read some time ago. "Maybe I want to walk in the sunlight with you."

"M-Maka..." And then he burst out laughing, a deep throated, shoulder shaking set of laughs that had him holding onto his stomach and crouching as though in pain. She looked at him in alarm. "What? Soul, what's the matter?" Had she said something strange?

He wiped at the tears that had welled in his eyes. "Maka," he wheezed. "That's so lame. Where did you get that from, one of your gloomy poetry books?" He laughed again, nearly bent double now. Maka could feel a vein throbbing at her temple.

"Makaaaaaaaaa... CHOP!" Her partner crashed to the floor in a pile of limbs and cursing. She glared down at him.

"What'd you do that for?" he yelled, rubbing angrily at the quickly forming bump on his head. Maka only crossed her arms. "You never learn, do you? Ugh, and here I thought you'd grown a little."

"What does that even mean?" Soul snapped. He leapt to his feet. "I was just joking around, Maka. You didn't have to get all violent about it."

"You didn't have to be such an ass about it!" she retorted. Ugh. What had she found so appealing about him? He was an ass. An insensitive ass whose humour was –

She let out an undignified squeak when she felt arms wrap around her neck from behind. The feel of his hair tickling at her neck made her jump. "I'd like to walk with you rain or shine," he muttered into her shoulder. Maka flushed. She laid her hand on top of his.

"I – I'd like that too," she whispered. She was terrified. She had no idea where they would go from here, or what they would become. She would probably have days where she would ask herself if there wouldn't come a day when she'd be disappointed. But the certainty of not knowing was far worse.

With Soul, she'd be willing to go against the odds. And perhaps that was all that mattered in the end.

_Addendum: _Whew. It's done. This took a long time to write, mainly because I couldn't figure out a good way for Maka and Soul to "kiss and make up", so to speak. Even now, this feels rushed in my opinion, but on the other hand, I didn't want to drag things out. This already takes up 23 plus pages on Word! Plus I get the feeling some parts would have just gotten superfluous with angst if I'd carried on.

Oh! And! I looked at the review count and I'm just one review away from 100! Thank you so much, everybody! In honour of the soon to be momentous occasion, I'm taking story requests! The first three reviewers to leave a request can have a fic written for them! There are only three conditions:

The main character has to be Maka and done from her point of view. There can be other characters or pairings in the fic, but Maka remains the star of this series. :)

2. I'd be much obliged if you helped me select from one of the themes I've yet to finish: Bite, Furious, Standing, Shower, Table, Nippy, Insatiable, Rrrip, Legs, Neck, Wrists, Eyelashes, Fortunate, Unfortunate, Love, Junkie, Hips, Rumours, Lies, Master, Morning, Dusk.

Basically, select one of themes and give me a Maka-centric story idea you think would work!

I do reserve the right to make final judgement calls.

I'm looking forward to hearing from you!


	15. Chapter 15

**A Maka for All Seasons**

**by DarkAngel**

_Disclaimer: _Atsushi Ohkubo and Square-Enix have all rights to it. I'm just borrowing the characters for a bit of good fun. Bubblicious, Google and YouTube are the property of their respective owners.

_Author's Note: _This is for raelynn gross, who requested a fic in which Black Star gets gum stuck in Maka's hair, and Soul tries to help her get it out. (Sounds like something the Great Black Star would do. XD) Thank you for reviewing, m'dear!

* * *

It was a typical day at the DWMA. Students went about their daily routine of attending classes and taking missions. The maniacal sun rose in the sky, laughing hoarsely as it reached its noontime peak. In one of the many mazelike corridors of the school was a classroom, and over the door to this classroom there hung a plaque that read "Class Crescent Moon". It is here that our tale begins.

As we established in the beginning, it was a typical day. Professor Stein hadn't entered the classroom yet, and so the students chattered animatedly with each other. Maka and her group of friends were no exception.

"So I was thinking, we haven't had a party in a while," Liz was saying, waving her hand in the air in front of her. Occasionally she would blow at the fingers on said hand. She gave them a critical look, and satisfied, nodded before speaking again. "It's almost Halloween, right? What's Halloween without a costume party?"

"Or trick or treating!" Patti burst out, giggling. She kicked her feet repeatedly onto the desktop, stopping only when Kid reached over and pushed her feet back down again. "I bet we can get lots of candy this year!"

"Yeah! I bet I can get the most! I'll even share some with you, my loyal followers!" Black Star cackled, and he and Patti traded an overenthusiastic high five. Maka looked up to where they were all sitting, her eyebrows knitting together.

"But Halloween falls on a school night this year, right?" They had their first semester tests coming up two weeks from Halloween as well; and Maka would be damned if she got anything lower than an A. Liz rolled her eyes.

"Chill out, Maka. You won't get anything less than a B even if you slacked off and you know it." Before the younger girl could open her mouth to retort, Liz continued. "And anyways, we can always have the party on the weekend, right Kid?"

"Yes, I suppose we could." Kid answered distractedly, his eyes level to the pencil on the desk he was trying to align with the others. Liz rolled her eyes at her meister's distraction but nevertheless leapt on the permission she'd been (semi-consciously) given.

"Great. It's settled then. Bring your costumed selves to the mansion on the 30th. I'll see if anyone else wants to come." Her eyes took on a calculating gleam, and Maka knew she was thinking of one of the boys in the year above them that she'd been eyeing – the older girl had spoken of nothing else for days now. She sighed.

"Well, Soul? What are you thinking of going as?" But he wasn't paying any attention, as it was fully diverted by his best friend and partner in crime, Black Star. Said boy was currently being fed square after square of grape Bubblicious courtesy of Patti, and Maka joined Soul in staring in morbid fascination as the blue-haired boy's cheeks began to bulge, his jaws working furiously on the gum.

"Kyahaha! We're gonna have a bubble blowing contest!" Patti took a break from stuffing Black Star's mouth to clap gleefully, fully aware that she'd gained the attention of everyone in their little group, Kid aside. She kicked him viciously under the table, her huge smile never wavering. The young incumbent Lord Death yelped, pencils scattering everywhere. At that moment, several things happened.

As Kid dove to rescue his writing utensils, he shoved Patti, who windmilled her way onto Black Star, who'd just blown a massive bubble about three times the size of his face. The huge wad of gum rocketed its way out of his mouth and looked comically like a parachute dropped package as it sailed its way over the desk and landed right on top of Maka's head, where it promptly deflated and settled over her head, covering her in a thin film of purple.

No one spoke for several moments. And then there were the simultaneous sounds of angry buzzing, like a nest of wasps that had had their hive disturbed, along with the sounds of raucous laughter on the part of one pea brained ninja who had no instinct for self-preservation.

"Makaaaaa….

"CHOP!"

* * *

There was an awkward shuffle to the front of the classroom as Liz and Tsubaki attempted to lead an enraged and embarrassed Maka out to the girls washrooms. Stein's miserably horrible sense of timing ensured that he wheeled into the classroom just as the girls opened the door.

"Augh!" Class Crescent Moon was getting a show today, that was for sure, Maka thought sourly as she got up, rubbing at the bruise that would undoubtedly form from a head on collision with a_ crazed nutjob in a rolling chair_. Could her day get any worse?

Liz and Tsubaki picked themselves up, the latter hovering over Maka nervously, checking to make sure she hadn't sustained any serious injuries. Liz glared at the oblivious professor, who was even now seating himself back in his chair, cranking the screw on the side of his head. "Ladies, class is starting now. What's so urgent that all three of you have to leave?" He raised his eyebrows when he spotted Maka and Tsubaki, expressing his surprise at seeing the two most unlikely candidates for playing hooky standing before him. Then his eyes landed on Maka's head.

"Ah. Will the extraction be requiring all three of you?" He leaned idly against the backrest of his chair, one hand coming up to crank his screw a few times. There were several snickers from the class, including, Maka noted furiously, from one unrepentant ninja who clearly hadn't learned his lesson. Her book went sailing over the several rows of desks and landed point blank on Black Star's forehead. The laughter immediately ceased.

"Yes, Professor. I'm sorry. I'll try to come back as soon as possible."

Unfortunately, it wasn't as easy as all that. The gum parachute was pretty much lodged in her hair and no amount of makeup remover, warm water or baby oil was getting it out.

"Tsubaki, I hope you've written out Black Star's will for him. I'm going to murder him!" If anything, she looked in a far more pitiable state than when this whole sorry affair had began. The left side of her hair hung to her head in wet clumps, strings of gum intertwined with the chunky strands. The majority of the gum had tangled with her hair so it looked as though ash blonde tentacles were mating with a purple blob. No Maka chop was going to cover what she had in store for that midget ninja wannabe.

The older girl wrung her hands together. "I'm really sorry, Maka-chan. Black Star does foolish things from time to time –" She shut her mouth at the blatantly patronizing look the younger girl shot her. "B-But he didn't mean it! He wasn't trying to aim for your head, or any part of you!"

She looked so pitiful, her big midnight eyes pleading, her brows knitted together so they created a hillock of apprehension between her eyes. Maka sighed. She couldn't be that angry, not when Tsubaki was giving her those eyes. How many times had Black Star's ass been saved by his sweet angel of a partner? _But he's still going to get it_, she thought darkly, as she glanced at her pitiful reflection in the mirror. _His pain will be nothing compared with what I'm going through now._

Liz whipped out her cell phone to Google 'ways to get gum out of your hair'. Her eyebrows shot up, a small noise escaping her. "Huh. It says here you can try peanut butter or olive oil to try and get it loose. Have we got any of that?"

Maka opened her mouth to retort that the likelihood of a jar of peanut butter just lying around for them to use would be as slim as Sid coming to school decked out in her Black Dress but Tsubaki, surprisingly, raised her hand.

"I think there's some in Black Star's locker," she said. At the look the other two females flashed her, she flushed. "He just likes to have a snack around. You know… just in case."

They continued to stare.

"You know how his appetite is. If he doesn't eat once every half hour, he gets irritable."

There was a pause. "You know…" Liz began. "I always wondered where that smell was coming from." She took a predatory step forward. Maka's brain immediately caught on to what Liz was getting at and her eyebrows shot into her hairline.

The Japanese girl made a squeaking sound in the back of her throat. She held up her hands, though what she hoped to fend off Maka honestly couldn't say, because Liz on a romantic bone was relentless. She tried to fend off disturbing images of her childhood friend and her current best girlfriend doing… things… with peanut butter.

Ugh. Well, there went her appetite.

By now Liz had trapped Tsubaki against the door. "Come on, you can tell us. We won't tell a soul, will we Maka?" Tsubaki flung a pathetic look her way, her eyes watering. Maka sighed. "Liz, give it up. There are more important things to deal with for now." She pointed to the disaster zone that was her hair. She ignored the looks of disgruntlement and relief shot her way.

"I-I'll be right back! Please wait right here!" Tsubaki fled, her face tomato red. Liz sighed, leaning back against one of the sinks. "Thanks a lot, Maka. I was onto something, you know," she muttered, but looked apologetic when she saw her friend's laser beam glare. "Oh. Sorry. I guess I got caught in the moment."

Maka let out an explosive sigh. They heard the sound of light footsteps, and then Tsubaki came jogging in with a jar of half eaten peanut butter in one hand and a butter knife in the other. Maka raised her brows. She knew she shouldn't be sniffy about her options, but she had no idea where that knife had been. She reached gingerly for the peanut butter, looking at it critically. "Liz, what am I supposed to do with this?"

Liz tapped away at her phone. "It says you're supposed to warm it up and then spread it on the patch of hair the gum's stuck in." She thought for a moment. "I have a hair dryer in my locker. Hang on."

In the end they spent the entire class period in the bathroom trying to find a solution, to no avail. Maka ended up borrowing one of Black Star's hoodies from Tsubaki. There would be gum and gods knew what else stuck to it when she took it off, but it was the least the monkey could do.

Soul looked up at Maka with raised eyebrows when she came back to class. "You look stupid," he said flatly, eyeing her makeshift 'solution'. "You do know the longer you have gum in your hair, the harder it is to get out, right?"

"I know that!" she snapped. Actually, she hadn't. She'd been planning to suffer her way through the remaining classes until she'd heard that. She grabbed her bag. "Come on, Soul. We're going home."

He raised his eyebrows at her. "We are?" She ignored the question, continuing to pack books into her bag. "You never skip, Maka."

"I've never had a monkey disguised as a wannabe ninja spit gum in my hair," she snapped back acidly. Soul raised one eyebrow. "Touche."

* * *

They made it home in record time on Soul's motorbike. Normally Maka would have yelled at him about breaking the speed limit, but she was in desperate straits. Her partner's words kept reverberating through her head. While she was no means a vain individual, she was not going to shave her hair off because she couldn't get some stupid gum out of her hair.

As soon as they got home, Maka ripped the hoodie off. She could feel a resistant tug at the back of her head as the fabric of the hoodie played tug of war with her hair. "Soul, do me a favour? Start up the laptop and look up ways to get this –" She pointed to the disaster squatting on her head. "-off."

"Okay." Soul shuffled – far too slowly, in Maka's opinion – off to his room. Maka threw the hoodie over a chair in disgust.

A few moments later, Soul came back. He continued his leisurely shuffle right past her and into the kitchen. Maka, who'd been sitting at the kitchen table, craned her neck over to see what he was up to. Her eyebrows furrowed when she saw him reach into the cabinets for a jar of peanut butter and olive oil. "Soul –" Before she could finish her sentence, he'd taken the box of cling wrap out of the drawer and turned back to her.

"Let's go to the bathroom." He handed her the box of cling wrap silently, taking up the peanut butter and olive oil and marching past her.

They settled with Maka sitting on the toilet seat and Soul alternating between spreading peanut butter and olive oil on her hair. Maka wrinkled her nose at the scent. "I'm never going to eat peanut butter again," she mumbled. Soul chuckled softly. "I wouldn't want to either." They were silent after that, Maka trying not to fidget while Soul spread the peanut butter over her hair, occasionally pausing to pour olive oil over the whole thing.

"There." He looked from Maka to the sink. "Could you turn the tap on?" He held up his hands. "I'd do it but –"

She complied with his request and watched him wash the peanut butter and olive oil from his hands thoroughly. He was taking an awfully long time with that soap, and her scalp was starting to itch. "Soul…"

"Sorry. Almost done." He finally turned the tap off and reached for the cling wrap. He stretched out a good length of it before cutting it. She could only snort as he swore when it started to fold in on itself. After some tries, he'd managed to get a big enough piece. He carefully placed it over her head and began tucking the edges against her head. She raised her eyebrows.

"I watched a YouTube video. They used this technique where you make a kind of masque thing and then heat it up with a hair dryer. That lets the gum slide out more easily."

"Wow." She thought for a moment. "Thank you, Soul."

"Huh? For what?"

"For doing this." She gestured to the gloopy mess on her head. "For not being an ass about all of this." _For always being there for me._ But she couldn't say that, not without feeling even more uncomfortable than she already was, so she kept it to herself.

"It's no biggie." He yawned, stretching. "We'll just let it sit for a little while and then wash it out." He turned to the door. "Let me know if there's anything you need, yeah?"

"Wait! Where are you going?" Maka scrambled up from the toilet seat again, alarmed. He wasn't just going to _leave her_ here with this mess, was he?

Soul raised his eyebrows. "You can wash that out yourself. Unless –" He grinned deviously. "Unless you want me to help, that is." His eyes roved suggestively over her figure. "I'd be willing to give you a chance now that you aren't so flat anymore –"

"OUT!" Maka screeched, throwing the box of cling wrap at his head. He ducked and closed the door behind him with a chuckle. She fumed. And here she thought he'd grown up. What an ass.

When she came out almost an hour later, Soul was sitting on the couch watching TV. He turned at the sound of the door opening. "You got it out," he commented simply.

"Yeah." She sighed. "Thank god."

She sat down beside him. "What are you watching?"

"Huh? Oh." He blinked at the screen. "Some kind of nature show or something."

Maka rolled her eyes. "What's the point of turning on the TV if you're not going to watch it?"

Soul shrugged. "I got bored." Maka rolled her eyes again, ready to make a comment when she stopped. If Soul was bored he would usually hole himself up in his room and listen to music, or else strum something out on his guitar. There was no reason for him to be out here, unless…

"What?" Soul frowned. "Did I get peanut butter on my face or something?"

"No." Maka shook her head. She reached over and grasped Soul's hand. "Thank you, Soul."

He flushed. "Hey, I said it was no big deal."

"Thank you anyway." She squeezed his hand. After a while, he squeezed back.

"You're welcome."

* * *

Things went back to normal over the course of the next few days. Tsubaki looked relieved when she saw that Maka's hair was intact on her head, a bit limp that first day, but looking much better than she had expected.

But Maka hadn't forgotten. Her eyes took on a sharp glint at the thought of the unrepentant monkey sitting some rows behind her. Even now he was laughing loudly about something he'd done at lunch – poor Tsubaki was trying to get him to shush, and Sid was glaring daggers at him.

As Maka took notes, she wondered just how she could get to the assassin.

Although he looked as though he'd forgotten the incident, he'd probably be on his guard. They'd practically grown up together, after all. He knew Maka just as well as she knew him. And contrary to appearances, Black Star had amazing Spidey senses when Lady Vengeance reared her head. She sighed, refocusing her efforts on Sid's lecture. That was when she saw it.

A bottle of Quench Ade. Bright blue. Just like Black Star's hair. Her mouth twitched.

* * *

It was almost two weeks after the Great Bubble Gum Escapade. By this time, everyone (including Black Star) had forgotten what had happened, and life at the Academy carried on as usual.

It was five minutes before the bell. Maka and the other girls were gathered together, talking about a new movie they were going to see that weekend. Maka only paid the scantest of attention, her focus on the blue haired boy sitting with Soul and Kid. At his elbow on the desk was his usual bottle of Quench Ade. He reached out a hand for it. Maka giggled.

"Maka?" Tsubaki's concerned voice floated to her. She looked at her best girl friend.

"Hm?"

"Are you all right?" The Japanese girl's eyebrows were knit together in concern, and her hand was twitching, as though trying not to reach out and feel her forehead. Maka nodded.

"Sorry, Tsubaki. I was just remembering something funny that happened the other day."

"Oh, okay." Tsubaki looked relieved as she let her hand fall to her side. Maka turned her attention back to the conversation. Stein rolled into class some minutes later, and they separated, taking their seats. Maka took hers beside Soul. For perhaps the first time, Maka regretted the fact that they didn't sit further back in the classroom.

Class went on as usual for the first ten minutes. The sounds of Stein's lecture and chalk scraping across the blackboard filled the room.

The first sign that something wasn't right was Tsubaki's whispered "Are you all right?" Maka kept her eyes on Stein, her mouth pressed into a straight line. Black Star mumbled something about being fine. Of course. He would be the last person to show even a moment's weakness, even in front of Tsubaki.

But no amount of bravado could overcome what Maka had put in that drink. She could hear the gurgling sound from where she sat. The sound of books being knocked to the floor at the force of Black Star's movements and the thundering of his high tops as he bolted out of the classroom was music to Maka's ears. The class watched the blue haired ninja depart, the door slamming open and reverberating through the room.

"I'm sorry, Professor Stein! I'm going to check that Black Star is all right!" Tsubaki bowed hurriedly before following her partner out the door.

"What was that about?" Soul said, cracking one eye open. Maka shrugged. She determinedly refused to look at Liz and Patti, who had identical shit eating grins on their faces.

"Dunno. Maybe he ate something funny for breakfast?"

Soul snorted. "Wouldn't put it past him. Idiot." He yawned. "Wake me when class is over. I'm going to get some shut eye."

Maka glared at him. "I'm not giving you my notes."

"Stingy." Soul clicked his tongue at her. Maka merely sniffed at and turned away. But she couldn't stop the smile that threatened to split her face in two. She could only imagine what sort of horrors Black Star was facing at that very moment. He wouldn't be returning to the class for the rest of the morning, she'd seen to that.

Revenge. It wasn't as sweet as all the gunk she'd had in her hair that day, but damned if she couldn't taste it.

It was delicious.

* * *

_Addendum: _Done! Holy hell, how long has it been since I started on this? (October, actually. Hence the Halloween theme. And now look, it's June!) I just couldn't find a good way to write this, and it probably didn't help that I've been absorbed in another fandom since last October.

I'll get around to writing the other requests. There may be delays, but I hope you'll stick with me. XD


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